CRI听力:NASA Exploring Private Spacecraft for Use in Manned Missions

Veteran astronauts Eric Boe and Sunita Williams are using touch-screen simulators to practice docking Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft with the space station during a training session near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

The simulator, called the Crew Part-Task Trainer, helps prepare astronauts and flight controllers for missions, flight conditions and situations including the rendezvous and docking.

Willaims explains how the simulator is helping prepare astronauts to dock the new type of spacecraft with the international space station.

"This is a simulator. It's one of a couple of different types of simulators that we'll have. This is primarily for getting to understand the systems and the cockpit layout and how the person - the crew member - inside is going to interact. Obviously, you see that it has hand controllers, so if there's a need to take over from the automatic system to fly a manual rendezvous to dock to the International Space Station, we can practice that here."

The United States hasn't seen a manned launch since Atlantis blasted off on the final space shuttle mission in 2011. NASA currently is outsourcing its supply runs and paying Russia to ferry astronauts to the space station.

NASA is developing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System for those longer journeys and has contracted Boeing and another U.S. company, SpaceX, to transport astronauts to the space station.

The cost for a ride on a private, American-operated spacecraft will be $58 million USD, cheaper than Russia's $76 million per ride.

Space flights are becoming commercial - and according to Boe, that will soon become the norm.

"We used to talk about countries going into space and, you know, now with the commercial crew, we're talking about companies going into space. That's going to change how things are done. If you look at aviation, it was a similar type of thing. It started back in the early 1900s, government was mainly paying for airplanes and then, as things progressed, you know, mail and those kinds of things, and then commercial entities started working on it. And so, I think it's going to be a big ...a big deal."

For its part, SpaceX plans to send an unmanned Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018, a first step in achieving founder Elon Musk's goal to fly people to another planet.

The program, known as Red Dragon, is intended to develop the technologies needed for human transportation to Mars, a long-term goal for both NASA and Musk.

The company said it will provide details of its Mars program at the International Astronautical Congress in September.

This next chapter in the history of spaceflight is still in its early stages. But Williams points out that the possibilities it contains should give all of us something to look forward to.

"This is the next really exciting chapter for our country and our space programme, where we're back here creating spacecraft and rockets in this country and launching from this country, which is, I think, really exciting."

For CRI, I'm Spencer Musick.