NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX on Tuesday to build America’s next spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017, opening the way to a new chapter in human spaceflight.
NASA, which has been unable to send astronauts to space since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, awarded a total of $6.8 billion to the two companies for their respective spacecraft.
“The total potential contract value is $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said.