Both Boeing and Space X won the tender to build the next carrier will return to the USA in orbit after the end of the Space Shuttle program.
NASA has finally announced that the American astronauts will have a vector starting from the ground around them for their nation and get to the space station.
It is not a vehicle built by the state, however, but the first commercial operation capable of transporting human personnel in space. In order to have selected two contractors, and we both know for a long time who are parts in the game with its Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon with the Crew.
The dependence on Russia is destined to end in 2017, and the Americans will return to space after a long break forced the closure of the space shuttle program, which took place in 2011.
But NASA does not seem to resize in its ambitions, now that he has transferred flights in orbit to the commercial contractor seems quite eager to point further: “Having passed the baton low Earth orbit to private industry will allow NASA to focus his plans on a more ambitious mission, sending humans to Mars “- on these terms is expressed Charlie Bolden, administrator of the institution American space.
The contract against Boeing is $ 4.2 billion, and 2.6 billion by Space X. It’s a little ‘impression to note that these figures are not so far removed from what Microsoft has paid to buy Mojang and Minecraft , but after all we are in in 2014.
The next step for the program to start commercial flights beings is a series of tests that include the presence on board of NASA astronauts. If you meet the expected success, each contractor will complete 2 to 6 missions to the ISS and will provide a “lifeboat” crew present on the station. This means that there are scheduled between 4 and 12 flights to our low-Earth orbit, which will expand the team today in the ISS, and will lower significantly the operating costs of this platform space.
