NASA orders more space taxi flights from Boeing and SpaceX (al.com)
By Lee Roop | lroop@al.com
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on January 04, 2017 at 10:36 AM
NASA gave Boeing and SpaceX orders Tuesday for four more crew flights each to the International Space Station.
The missions are part of $6.8 billion in contracts already awarded the companies in 2014, and the Boeing award is good news for Alabama. Huntsville Boeing employees are working on the company's crew capsule, and Decatur United Launch Alliance workers will build the Atlas V rocket it will ride to space.
Neither capsule will be ready to fly before 2018, according to the latest reports. That means NASA will have to buy four more seats on Russia's Soyuz rocket this year for astronauts scheduled to go to the station. Those seats cost more than $80 million each, and Boeing and SpaceX say they can beat that price.
SpaceX plans to test its Dragon crew capsule in November and fly a crew in May 2018. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will fly uncrewed in June 2018 and with a crew in August 2018, according to Boeing's plans.
These so-called space taxis must be able to transport up to four astronauts and 220 pounds of cargo. Both will launch from the Kennedy Space Center-Cape Canveral complex in Florida.
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more: http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2017/01/nasa_orders_more_space_taxi_fl.html
