Boeing lands joint contract to build new space taxi

NASA has awarded $6.8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX to build two new Apollo-style “space taxis” that would ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

NASA has been paying $70 million per ride to Russia to transport astronauts since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011.

Boeing will get most of the funds for its CST-100 capsule, $4.2 billion, while SpaceX will receive $2.6 billion from what’s known as the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability program.

Boeing will build three CST-100s at the company’s Commercial Crew Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will undergo a pad-abort test in 2016 and an uncrewed flight in early 2017, leading up to the first crewed flight to the ISS in mid-2017, the company said.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden named the winners of the competition at Kennedy Space Center, next door to where the launches should occur in a few years.

In addition to ferrying astronauts, Bolden says the new space taxis pave the way for commercial, civilian space flights in the coming years.

“The partnerships with Boeing and SpaceX promise to give more people in America and around the world the opportunity to experience the wonder and exhilaration of space flight. To realize the dream of leaving Earth for even a short time to float above our planet Earth,” Bolden says.

Turning over the flights to private companies also allows NASA to focus on a bigger mission – human flight to Mars – Bolden says.

The new California-based SpaceX – founded by Tesla by billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk – is already delivering supplies to the space station; its crew capsule is a version of its cargo carrier.

The commercial crew program follows the successful cargo delivery effort underway for the past two years, also under NASA contract. The objective, for years, has been for NASA to hand space station flights to private companies and focus on getting astronauts into true outer space, with destinations such as asteroids and Mars. NASA is prepping its first-ever Orion space exploration capsule for a test flight in December.

SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and retrieve it in 2010. The SpaceX Dragon capsule made its first space station trip, with astronaut supplies, in 2012.

Its Dragon cargo carrier has been enhanced to carry as many as seven astronauts. It’s known as Dragon v2 — version two.

Boeing’s CST-100 stands for Crew Space Transportation, the number referring to 100 kilometers or 62 miles, the official start of space.

NASA paid each of the three major contenders hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to spur development.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company in Washington state received NASA funding in the early rounds of competition, then said it would continue working on its own, unfunded by the government. The company had given sparse details about its progress and intent.

Boeing’s seven person capsule feels more like an airplane than a cramped capsule. It features Boeing’s Sky Interior, one of the new features on the 737. The seats have been designed with 787 headrests and other comforts borrowed from Boeing’s commercial airplane side of the company.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.