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18th September 2014

NASA awards $6.8bn contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to provide launch services from 2017

Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA has been reliant on Russia for delivering manned flights to low-Earth orbit. The agency has been charged upwards of $70 million per person for rides on Russian Soyuz capsules. Russia's monopoly on space transportation looks set to end, however, as two major contracts worth $6.8 billion have just been awarded to Boeing and SpaceX.

From 2017, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft – alongside Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 – will deliver astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Prior to these services, the contracts will include at least one crewed test flight per company. Once the launch, manoeuvring and docking systems have been validated, as many as six crewed missions will be undertaken by each company. These spacecraft will also serve as lifeboats for astronauts aboard the ISS.

According to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry will allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission – sending humans to Mars. The agency recently completed a review of its Space Launch System, the rocket intended to carry humans to the Red Planet, and has reaffirmed its commitment to achieving this goal during the 2030s.

 

falcon 9 dragon and cst-100

 

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