Author: Amy Thompson / Source: WIRED
SpaceX and Boeing are preparing to face off in an epic game of capture the flag. The winner not only wins bragging rights as the first private company to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station, but gets to bring home a piece of history: a small American flag that flew on both the first and last shuttle missions.
That tiny patch of red, white, and blue is more than a piece of cloth. It represents the hope that astronauts will once again launch from US soil—and bring that flag back home with them.With each company’s spacecraft nearing completion, NASA announced on Friday who will pilot them. Nine astronauts—seven men and two women—were greeted like rock stars by a crowd of family, NASA employees, government representatives, and journalists as NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine introduced the first crews to fly from US soil on the backs of American rockets since 2011.
That’s the year the administration grounded NASA’s fleet of space shuttles, leaving the agency (and others around the world) dependent on Russian rockets to ferry crew to and from the ISS. Shortly before the last shuttle flew, though, NASA launched a competition to see which private company could build the best space taxi, a vessel that would ensure NASA’s astronauts had access to space. Though several companies wanted in on the action, the agency selected just two in 2014: SpaceX and Boeing. Through its Commercial Crew program, NASA awarded both companies a combined $6.8 billion in government contracts.
Boeing started from scratch, building a thimble-shaped capsule designed to hold seven passengers.
The CST-100 Starliner is designed to hitch a ride to orbit atop an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch…The post Meet the Astronauts Who Will Fly the First Private ‘Space Taxis’ appeared first on FeedBox.