NASA Chooses Boeing, SpaceX to Fly Astronauts

Three years after the United States ended the space shuttle program, the American space agency today announced the return of “human space flight to U.S. soil.”

NASA has chosen two spaceships, the Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon version 2, to bring American astronauts to the International Space Station. The program will cost $6.8 billion.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden said “this wasn’t an easy choice.” He said the decision will “end our reliance on Russia” to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station.

The decision followed four years of work by Boeing, SpaceX and a smaller company called Sierra Nevada.

The Boeing CST-100 is designed to transport up to seven passengers or a mixed load to the International Space Station. Boeing has built spaceships for NASA for more than 40 years. It was one of the main builders of the space station.

NASA has used the SpaceX Dragon spaceship since 2012 to carry supplies to the space station. It is the first private company to do so. But it has always said its goal is to transport humans into space.

Boeing and SpaceX will own and operate the spaceship. In the space agency’s words, “once development is complete, NASA plans to buy a service -- simply put, like getting a taxi ride to low-Earth orbit.”

The final space shuttle mission ended July 21, 2011. Shuttles had been used to carry astronauts and others from the United States and other countries into space for 30 years. After NASA stopped using the shuttles in 2011, it was forced to pay Russia to carry American astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The flight costs about $70 million for each American astronaut. At least four American astronauts fly to the space station every year.

NASA plans to stop using the Russian Soyuz spaceship in 2017. The agency hopes the new Boeing and SpaceX vehicle will transport humans to space by the end of that year.

NASA says it has been visiting low-Earth orbit since 1962 and it wants to give that work to private companies.  NASA says that will permit it to get “the most research and experience out of America’s investment in the International Space Station.” And, NASA notes, it will also be able to spend its time on “building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions, including flights to Mars in the 2030s.” Those trips may also include landings on asteroids. NASA is reportedly planning to send a deep-space exploration spaceship on a test flight in December.