NASA picks SpaceX and Boeing to ferry astronauts to International Space Station

NASA has hired U.S. firms Boeing and SpaceX to ferry more astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), with the first crewed test flight set for as early as May 2018. In 2014, both private firms entered in to a contract with NASA to carry out a space taxi service but were only offered two missions each. Now Boeing and SpaceX will get six missions each, but only if their technology can pass NASA certification. At present, NASA astronauts go to and from the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and have done since 2011when NASA last flew its space shuttle mission. More

(Source: CNBC - Jan 5)