NASA announced its partnership with Boeing and SpaceX to build commercially owned and operated "space taxis" to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, ending American dependence on Russian spaceships for rides, officials said on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
The United States space agency also considered a bid by privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp. but opted to award long-time aerospace contractor Boeing and California's SpaceX with contracts valued at a combined $6.8 billion to develop, certify and fly their 7-person capsules, the AP reported.
Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion to SpaceX's $2.6 billion. SpaceX is run by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, also the chief executive officer of electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, according to the AP.
"SpaceX is deeply honored by the trust NASA has placed in us," said Musk, a South Africa-born, Canadian-American billionaire, the AP reported. "It is a vital step in a journey that will ultimately take us to the stars and make humanity a multi-planet species."
The awards position Boeing and SpaceX to be ready for commercial flight services in 2017, said Kathy Leuders, manager for NASA's Commercial Crew program, according to the AP. Both contracts have the same requirements.
"The companies proposed the value within which they were able to do the work and the government accepted that," Leuders told reporters in a conference call, the AP reported.
NASA has said that in addition to test flights, the awards would include options for between two and six operational missions, according to the AP.
By flying astronauts commercially from the United States, NASA could end Russia's monopoly on space station crew transport, the AP reported.
The agency pays $70 million per person for rides on Russian Soyuz capsules, the only flights available for astronauts since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in 2011, according to the AP.
