NASA on Monday (Sept. 19) unveiled a billion-dollar plan to purchase flights of new private space taxis to fly American astronauts to and from Earth orbit now that the agency's shuttle fleet is retired.
The U.S. space agency will purchase commercial spaceflights for astronauts as part of its Integrated Design Contract, which will award $1.61 billion to companies that successfully develop a complete spaceflight package — one that includes rockets, spaceships, launch services, ground and mission control operations, and spacecraft recovery after landing.
"This is a significant step forward in America's amazing story of space exploration," NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a statement. "It's further evidence we are committed to fully implementing our plan — as laid out in the Authorization Act — to outsource our space station transportation so NASA can focus its energy and resources on deep space exploration.
