Washington. (EFE) .- companies Boeing and SpaceX were selected Tuesday to carry astronauts back NASA Space Station International in vehicles and American technology, without dependency on third countries.
The contract, valued at 6,800 million dollars recovered for a private American companies tasks since 2011, with the withdrawal space shuttle, were in the hands of the Russian space program Soyuz.
“From the outset, the Government (Barack) Obama made clear that this great nation on Earth should not depend on other countries to go into space, “said NASA chief Charles Bolden, in a press conference from Cape Canaveral (Florida).
Bolden said they hope this can curb multimillion dollar contract in 2017 with the dependence Russia to bring staff up to the ISS.
Boeing will receive $ 4,200 million, while NASA awarded to SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, co-founder of the online payment system PayPal, 2,600 million dollars.
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 space capsule , and the SpaceX Dragon space rocket in his.
With this contract, the entire process of sending astronauts into space or equipment American hands again 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 for every American astronaut who moved to the ISS.
With the recovery of this work, although now privatized under the contract announced today, NASA intends to be able to send its first astronauts on these vehicles in three years.
“Today we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from American soil in American spacecraft and ending dependence on Russia by 2017, “he said.
Bolden said put in the hands of private industry managing flights in low Earth orbit will allow the NASA “focus on an even more ambitious mission: to send humans to Mars”
This partnership between the public and private sectors will enable 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 also allows companies to offer their services to human transport to other customers besides NASA, which will reduce costs for all users .
NASA stressed that both vehicles have to pass the tests and the security protocols of the space agency before they begin manned missions.
Vice President and CEO division of Boeing Space Exploration, John Elbon, said his company feels “honored” by the decision and said that NASA CST-100 “offers the newest NASA, safe and economically efficient successor tested for space shuttles. “
” The company built the vehicle for NASA, but hopes to take private passengers and other governments to someday space, “he added.
On the other hand, CEO and chief designer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, thanked the confidence that NASA has placed in his company and considered that “it is a vital step on a journey that ultimately will take us to the stars and become humanity a kind of multi-planet. “
The SpaceX Dragon 2012 became 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 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 HL-20 spacecraft from NASA, with capacity to transport up to seven astronauts.
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