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Nasa awards private 'space taxi' contracts to Boeing and SpaceX

The space agency will pay the companies billions of dollars to take astronauts to the international space station so it no longer has to rely on Russia

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An unmanned European supply vessel carrying more than six tonnes of freight docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday reinforcing Europe's role in the functioning of the ISS, space officials said.
Since 2011, the only way Nasa has been able to transport astronauts to the International Space Station was by buying seats on Russian rockets costing $70m (£43m) per person Credit: Photo: Nasa

Nasa has awarded its first private contracts for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station.

Boeing and SpaceX will take on Nasa’s “space taxi” service after years of the agency relying on foreign countries.

Since the retirement of US space shuttles in 2011 the only way the space agency has been able to transport astronauts was by buying seats on Russian rockets costing $70m (£43m) per person.

The new contracts are worth up to $4.2bn to Boeing and up to $2.6bn to SpaceX, which is run by entrepreneur Elon Musk, 43, who is also the chief executive of Tesla, the California-based electric car company. Sierra Nevada Corp, a third competitor for the contracts with its Dream Chaser winged space plane, lost out.

The flights are expected to begin by 2017 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Boeing will be able to take seven passengers in its CST-100 capsule. CST stands for Crew Space Transportation, and the number refers to 100km above the Earth, the start of space. The capsule will be sent up on an Atlas V rocket

In 2010 SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft into orbit and then successfully retrieve it. In 2012 it made its first cargo run to the space station.

It will alter its Dragon cargo capsule to take astronauts and it will be mounted on the company’s own Falcon 9 rocket.

Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden said he felt “giddy” announcing the contracts.

He said: “The Obama Administration has made it very clear that the greatest nation on earth should not be dependent on any other nation for getting into space.

“We are one step closer to launching our astronauts from US soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation’s sole reliance on Russia by 2017.

“Turning over low Earth orbit transportation to private industry will also allow Nasa to focus on an even more ambitious mission - sending humans to Mars.”