“NASA announces $1.1 billion in support for a trio of spaceships.” That was one of the headlines on August 3, 2012, when NASA announced it had committed $1.1 billion over the next 21 months to support spaceship development efforts by a lineup of companies, with the aim of flying American astronauts on American spacecraft within an ambitious deadline of five years. With SpaceX hawking much of the media spotlight following the spectacular success of Dragon’s docking with the International Space Station (ISS) earlier that year, it had been easy to forget there were other major players in the race to build space taxis. So, before continuing with the SpaceX story – and Crew Dragon in particular – it is instructive to review some of the other companies competing with SpaceX in developing vehicles capable of flying crews to and from the orbiting outpost. These companies included aerospace juggernaut, Boeing, who received $460 million in the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) outlay, and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), who received $212.5 million.
The Space Taxi Race
Springer Praxis Books(formerly: Springer-Praxis Series)
2022-05-12
33 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English