NASA Funds Private Spacecraft

The Washington Post reports:

NASA boldly took the next step in fostering a commercial U.S. space industry Monday by doling out $269 million to four companies developing vehicles to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station.

The Boeing Company won $92.3 million for its design, which resembles the Apollo capsules that took Americans to the moon.

Blue Origin, started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, received $22 million for its capsule design, while SpaceX, founded by PayPal inventor Elon Musk, won $75 million to accelerate work on its Dragon crew capsule.

Sierra Nevada Corp., with $80 million, is building a small space-plane that could launch on a rocket and land on a runway.

The new funding “takes us a couple more steps down the road to have flying capability to the space station,” said John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, which represents 40 companies in the nascent business.

NASA said the funding will push the companies to develop their technology but won’t be sufficient to build fully functioning and space-rated vehicles.

The agency hopes to have an operational spacecraft by “mid-decade,” but only if safety can be assured, said NASA’s Edward Mango.

Philip McAlister, NASA’s acting director of commercial spaceflight development, said he hopes there is “sufficient business” for more than one vehicle capable of reaching Earth orbit.

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