In its ongoing effort to convey America back into the crewed space travel plot , NASA announce today that Boeing has received a second commercial-grade crew order to ferry astronaut to the International Space Station .
This marks the third in a series of four crew order NASA will make under the the Commercial Crew Program , a$6.8 billion clam space taxi contract . The space agency gave its first social club to Boeing in May , while commercial-grade spacefaring companySpaceX receive the 2d in November . The contracts , which give companies anywhere from two to six crewed commission , are hypothesize to boil down the cost of sending our astronauts to the ISS ( they currently thumb anastronomically expensive ridewith Russia ) . Moreover , the US is attempting to reaffirm its position as a leader in human spacefaring — a position that take a nosedive after the Space Shuttle retired .
Boeing ’s second order is a big voter turnout of confidence from NASA in wake of the rocket engine company ’s successful completion of several technical milestones . The design and development of its Starliner spacecraft , United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and associated ground system are all moving along as scheduled , which is nifty news show .
It ’s still unreadable which rocket companionship — Boeing or SpaceX — will aviate astronaut first . Both still have to dispatch a rigorous certification cognitive operation , and crewed flight from American soil are n’t expected to commence until at least 2017 .
In the meanwhile , it ’s high time to get down taking bets on who ’s going to encounter the final order .
[ NASA ]
Top : Artist ’s concept showing Boeing ’s CST-100 Starliner ballistic capsule , currently under exploitation for NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , dock to the International Space Station .
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