Space tourism is back on track

By 2017, the transportation of people to the International Space Station should be taken over by private companies SpaceX and Boeing. Nearly $2011 billion in NASA contracts are designed to replace the space shuttles, decommissioned in XNUMX, and to become independent of the Russians and their Soyuz, which have monopolized bringing people to the ISS since the shuttle's withdrawal.

The choice of SpaceX, which has been delivering its rockets and cargo ships to the station since 2012, is not surprising. The design of the company's DragonX V2 manned capsule, which should accommodate up to seven people, is well known, and its testing and first manned flight were still planned until 2017.

However, most of the $6,8 billion (SpaceX is expected to receive about $2,6 billion) will go to Boeing, which works with the lesser-known Blue Origin LLC rocket company founded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. The Boeing 100 Capsule (CST) also accommodates up to seven people. Boeing could use Blue Origin's BE-3 rockets or SpaceX's Falcons.