Boeing, SpaceX win US$6.8b Nasa deal to ferry astronauts

[WASHINGTON] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) on Tuesday awarded a pair of much-anticipated contracts, worth up to US$6.8 billion combined, to Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in a deal that will allow the United States to launch astronauts into space from American soil for the first time in years.

Speaking from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden said that the contracts set the stage "for what promises to be most ambitious and exciting chapter in Nasa and human space flight". Relying so heavily on contractors…