my summary of
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-02-02-20-58-19
NASA is going back to its 1959-60 roots, when it did more research and development than engineering. NASA hopes there will be multiple spaceships. There may be a couple more companies competing than the following 7.
A year ago, the space agency gave $3.5 billion in contracts to the following 2 companies for 20 cargo flights to the space station. Both companies will also develop crew taxis to the space station. SpaceX says they could fly astronauts within 3 years of a final contract for $20 million a head, less than half the price NASA pays for Soyuz.
1) SpaceX, Hawthorne, CA, (run by Elon Musk of PayPal, has already built the Falcon rocket and the Dragon capsule)
2) Orbital Science Corp., Dulles, VA
NASA on Tuesday detailed $50 million worth of seed grants for development of a space taxi to the following 5 companies.
3) Blue Origin, Kent, WA (run by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, has only talked about it)
4) Boeing Co., Houston, TX
5) Paragon Space Development Co., Tucson, AZ
6) Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, NV
7) United Launch Alliance, Denver, CO (President Mike Gass, has already builty Atlas and Delta rockets)
United Launch Alliance got $6.7 million to upgrade the firm's Atlas and Delta rockets for safety to carry people instead of just cargo.
Blue Origin received $3.7 million from NASA to work on a new type of launch escape system for a crew.