NASA Awards Contracts Two Both Companies Worth A Total Of $6.8 Billion

NASA has announced what administrator Charles Bolden called the most ambitious and exciting chapter in human spaceflight."

Boeing, and SpaceX have been awarded contracts by NASA to begin transporting astronauts to the International Space Station sometime in 2017. The contracts have a combined value to the companies of $6.8 billion.

"Boeing and SpaceX have presented designs that will allow NASA to fly humans to ISS by 2017," Bolden said in announcing the contracts at an event Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center.

Bolden said the Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon spacecraft must meet the same rigorous safety standards as the Space Shuttle.

Commercial Crew program manager Kathy Lueders said contracts will be paid out as SpaceX and Boeing complete a series of five milestones. Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion and SpaceX was awarded $2.6 billion for the continued development and certification of the spacecraft. Lueders said NASA awarded the contracts based on the two companies' proposals. They were given the same criteria to make those proposals.

The contracts include at least one crewed flight test per company with at least one NASA astronaut aboard to verify the fully integrated rocket and spacecraft system can launch, maneuver in orbit, and dock to the space station, as well as validate all its systems perform as expected. Once each company’s test program has been completed successfully and its system achieves NASA certification, each contractor will conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to the space station. These spacecraft also will serve as a lifeboat for astronauts aboard the station.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program will implement this capability as a public-private partnership with the American aerospace companies. NASA's expert team of engineers and spaceflight specialists is facilitating and certifying the development work of industry partners to ensure new spacecraft are safe and reliable.

The U.S. missions to the International Space Station following certification will allow the station's current crew of six to grow, enabling the crew to conduct more research aboard the unique microgravity laboratory.

Both spacecraft are capsules reminiscent of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and now Orion programs. The company building a spacecraft more like the Space Shuttle ... Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser ... was not part of the contract award.

(Images from file. Top: Boeing CST-100 at ISS. Bottom: SpaceX Dragon V2 at ISS. Artists renderings)

FMI: www.nasa.gov