NASA announced December 10th the next step in its plan to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three companies to conduct activities under contracts that will enable future certification of commercial spacecraft as safe to carry humans to the International Space Station.
The Certification Products Contracts (CPC) are the Commercial Crew Program’s first major, fixed-price contracts and will bring space system designs within NASA’s safety and performance expectations for future flights to the orbiting laboratory.
The CPC contractors are:
— The Boeing Co., Houston
— Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems, Louisville, Colo.
— Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif.
Each contract is about $10 million. To read more about what the companies will do under the contracts and what this step means for the future of American human spaceflight, go to http://go.nasa.gov/T2igon.
