<- 8 weight multimedia content -> <- End 8 weight multimedia content ->
Washington, Sep 16 (EFE) The Boeing and SpaceX .- companies today were chosen to carry astronauts back NASA to the International Space Station with American vehicles and technology, without dependency on third countries.
The contract, valued at 6,800 million dollars recovered for a private American companies tasks since 2011, with withdrawal of the space shuttles, were in the hands of the Russian Soyuz space program.
“From the outset, the Government ( Barack ) Obama made clear that this great nation Earth should not depend on other countries to go to space, “said NASA chief Charles Bolden, in a press conference from Cape Canaveral (Florida).
Bolden said they expect that this billionaire contract allows end in 2017 with the dependence of Russia to bring staff up to the ISS.
Boeing will receive $ 4,200 million, while the NASA Space X granted to the company Elon Musk, co-founder of online payment system PayPal , 2.600 million.
releases, the announcement was made again from the traditional center of Cape Canaveral on the east coast of Florida, in the case of the Boeing Company in its CST-100 spacecraft, and the SpaceX Dragon in his rocket.
With this contract, the entire shipping process astronauts and equipment into space again American hands and re-develop technology in this country.
It is estimated that the so-called “taxi service” the Russian space program Soyuz came charging over 70 million dollars for every American astronaut who moved to the ISS.
With the recovery of these tasks, but now privatized under the contract announced today, NASA intends to be able to send its first astronauts on these vehicles in three years.
“We are one step closer today to launch our astronauts from American soil in American spacecraft and ending dependence on Russia by 2017,” he said.
Bolden said to put in the hands of private industry managing flights in low Earth orbit will allow NASA to “focus on an even more ambitious mission: to send humans to Mars.”
This partnership between industry public and private will allow to increase the permanent crew of the International Space Station, currently set at 6, and further experiments in the “unique” laboratory in microgravity.
The agreement allows companies also offer their services transport human to other customers besides NASA, which will reduce costs for all users.
NASA stressed that both vehicles have to pass the tests and security protocols the space agency before they begin manned missions.
The vice president and chief of the division of Boeing Space Exploration, John Elbon, said his company feels “honored” to NASA’s decision and said that CST-100 “offers the newest NASA, safe and economically efficient successor tested for space shuttles.”
“The company built the vehicle for NASA but he hopes to take private passengers and other governments to someday space, “he added.
Meanwhile, the CEO and chief designer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, thanked the confidence that NASA has deposited in his company and considered that “it is a vital step on a journey that ultimately will take us to the stars and humanity become a multi-planet species.”
The SpaceX Dragon became 2012 the first commercial vehicle carrying cargo to the space station but the company is working on a version for transporting humans.
The CST-100 can accommodate up to seven passengers or part of passengers and other cargo .
In this new space race also compete other companies like Sierra Nevada Corp, an aerospace company based in Nevada, which is working on the Dream Chaser spacecraft, based on the vehicle . spatial HL-20 NASA, with capacity to transport up to seven astronauts
(Reuters)
<- Related topics article -> <- End article- related topics ->
No comments:
Post a Comment