NASA Boeing and SpaceX delivery to transport astronauts … – RTVE

RTVE.es / EFE

The agency US aerospace, NASA announced Tuesday the award of a millionaire contract to private companies SpaceX and Boeing in order to take charge of carry astronauts from American soil to the International Space Station (ISS).

With this contract, announced by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the entire process of sending astronauts or equipment space will return to American hands . USA. hopes to be able to get to the first astronauts into space with full technology of this country in 2017 .

So far, Russia and the United States had worked to bring the astronauts into space in the relief of the ISS. This situation highlights once again demonstrates the deterioration of relations between the two countries following the crisis in Ukraine after NASA announced the suspension of its space partnership with Russia in April this year .

End the dependence of Russia

The contract, worth about 6,800 billion (5.248 million euros), recovers to private companies Americans about chores that since 2011 were held by the Russian Soyuz space program.

In this regard, Bolden explained that expected to finish in 2017 dependence of Russia to bring staff up to the ISS, which had been occurring since the withdrawal of the American space shuttle program in 2011.

Dragon and CST-100 replace Soyuz

It is estimated that the so-called “taxi service” the Russian space program Soyuz came charging over $ 70 million per astronaut American who moved to the ISS.

With the recovery of these tasks, but now privatized under the contract announced, NASA intends to be able to send its first astronauts in space capsules rockets equipped with 2017.

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 CST-100 space capsule , and in the SpaceX Dragon space rocket in his .