WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - U.S. astronauts once again will travel to and from the International Space Station from the United States on American spacecraft under groundbreaking contracts NASA announced Tuesday. The US space agency unveiled its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively.
'From day one, the Obama Administration made clear that the greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on other nations to get into space,' NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 'Today we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation's sole reliance on Russia by 2017. Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry will also allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission - sending humans to Mars.'
These Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts are designed to complete the NASA certification for human space transportation systems capable of carrying people into orbit. Once certification is complete, NASA plans to use these systems to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth.
The Boeing Company, Houston, is to provide this transportation capability at a cost of $4.2 billion, while NASA awarded the contract to Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, California, for $2.6 billion.
NASA's Commercial Crew Program will implement this capability as a public-private partnership with the American aerospace companies. NASA's expert team of engineers and spaceflight specialists is facilitating and certifying the development work of industry partners to ensure new spacecraft are safe and reliable.
NASA said the U.S. missions to the International Space Station following certification will allow the station's current crew of six to grow, enabling the crew to conduct more research aboard the unique micro-gravity laboratory.
The companies will own and operate the crew transportation systems and be able to sell human space transportation services to other customers in addition to NASA, thereby reducing the costs for all customers.
By encouraging private companies to handle launches to low-Earth orbit - a region NASA's been visiting since 1962 - the nation's space agency can focus on getting the most research and experience out of America's investment in the International Space Station. NASA said it also can focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions, including flights to Mars.
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