Boeing and SpaceX Are Racing to Bring Astronauts, Then Tourists, to Space
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lift off from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 21, 2014.
Source: NASAFor the past seven years, American astronauts who need to get to the International Space Station have had only one option: Pay roughly $80 million to hitch a ride on a cramped Russian Soyuz rocket.
Now Boeing Co. and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. are preparing to ferry Americans to space for the first time since the Space Shuttle program went dark in 2011. If all goes well during a flurry of testing over the coming months, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will carry two astronauts to orbit in November, followed by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in December. Those first manned flights by these companies would usher in the first-ever commercial taxi service to earth orbit in 2019, followed by a battle to tempt high-spending tourists to take a trip into space.