REUTERS - NASA is adding $30 million to its investment in three companies' efforts to develop spaceships that can fly astronauts to the International Space Station, officials said on Monday. <\/p>\n
The U.S. space agency awarded $10 million to privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp, $9.99 million to Boeing and $9.59 million to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to help the firms get their vehicles certified to fly to the station. <\/p>\n
Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, NASA has been dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the $100 billion orbital outpost, a research laboratory owned and operated by 15 countries that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. <\/p>\n
The companies have separate agreements with NASA to develop space transportation systems, with the aim of breaking Russia's monopoly by 2017. Boeing was awarded $460 million for its CST-100 capsule, Space Exploration Technologies received $440 million to upgrade its Dragon cargo capsule to carry people and Sierra Nevada was awarded $212.5 million for work on its winged Dream Chaser. <\/p>\n
The earlier awards were to help fund the spaceship designs, while the new awards will help fund the process of certifying that they meet NASA safety requirements to carry humans. <\/p>\n
\"These contracts represent important progress in restoring human spaceflight capabilities to the United States,\" Phil McAlister, who oversees NASA's commercial spaceflight programs, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\"NASA and its industry partners are committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching astronauts from home within the next five years,\" he said. <\/p>\n
The contracts run from January 22, 2013, through May 30, 2014. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Mojave, California; Editing by Jane Sutton and Lisa Shumaker) <\/p>\n
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NASA adds $30 million for space taxi work<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" REUTERS - NASA is adding $30 million to its investment in three companies' efforts to develop spaceships that can fly astronauts to the International Space Station, officials said on Monday. The U.S. Continue reading