SpaceX and Boeing hold contracts with NASA through the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program. “It is important to have at least two healthy and robust capabilities from USA companies to deliver crew and critical scientific experiments from American soil to the space station throughout its lifespan”.
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In spite of an explosive launch failure over the summer, it has been an unusually good year for SpaceX.
SpaceX will use its Crew Dragon spacecraft to ferry up to seven astronauts per launch. Boeing, meanwhile, is polishing up its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.
SpaceX netted its first order a few six months after Boeing, NASA’s other provider of astronaut transportation services under Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts awarded in September 2014.
Determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time, NASA said.
Both Boeing and SpaceX have received billions in seed money from NASA to restore American access to the ISS, after the United States space shuttle program was retired in 2011.
SpaceX – or Space Exploration Technologies – has sent unmanned supply ships to the space station, but the latest contract marks the first time it has been hired to send a crew to the orbiting base.
SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell responded to the mission order stating that the company’s Crew Dragon Capsule is “one of the safest, most reliable spacecraft ever flown”. A standard commercial mission, as the public-private partnership is known, will carry four astronauts and a few 200 pounds of cargo.
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SpaceX just got its first crew mission, and it’s a big one. NASA says that commercial space flight could increase the research capabilities on the global Space Station. The program also will be involved in all operational phases of missions to ensure crew safety.
