Astronauts will be delivered to the ISS by Boeing and SpaceX.

Capsule Boeing CST-100

NASA has just announced the results of a tender under the Commercial Crew program to deliver astronauts to the ISS. This is the last stage of the multi-year program, which began after the abandonment of the shuttles in 2001. The program is designed to 2017 .

Three companies participated in the tender: Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation. The contract received Boeing ($ 4.2 billion) and SpaceX ($ 2.6 billion).
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Boeing is developing a manned capsule CST-100 , which is supposed to deliver up to 7 astronauts to the ISS and back to Earth. The capsule with touchscreens and Internet access can be used up to 10 times.

The test phase includes at least one test flight with one NASA astronaut on board each of the capsules. He should check the performance of systems and maneuverability. Then Boeing and SpaceX will conduct 2-6 missions on the ISS.

Unlike Boeing, SpaceX has already carried out several successful docking of the unmanaged version of the Dragon capsule with the ISS, but managers from NASA probably could not refuse a friend, a trusted partner - and allocated him a large part of the budget. Rumor has it that the decision was made not without the influence of Jeff Bezos, whose company Blue Origin together with Boeing and Lockheed Martin will participate in the United Launch Alliance joint project to develop a rocket engine instead of the Russian RD-180. Blue Origin already has a prototype of such a BE-3 engine for the planned New Shephard space capsule. A liquid hydrogen engine was first successfully tested in December 2013 ( video ).


Blue Origin missile tests

The CST-100 capsule is designed for launching an Atlas 5 rocket into orbit.

A partial “defeat” in the SpaceX tender does not deprive the company of orders for commercial freight transportation. At the cost of the launch, SpaceX technology wins over Boeing, so customers are interested in working with it.

A few words about the third bidder - Sierra Nevada Corporation, which initially had little chance of winning. They create a manned ship Dream Chaser , capable of landing on the runway.



The company is not going to turn off the development after losing the tender and intends to use the shuttle, probably for organizing tourist trips.