Boeing, SpaceX Eye 2017 for First Crew Missions

Boeing and SpaceX plan to begin ferrying astronauts into space by 2017 as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, an effort to tap private companies for crewed missions following the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet nearly four years ago.

In 2012, NASA awarded $1.1 billion to Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corporation to design and develop vehicles that could carry astronauts into space within five years. Last year, the space agency eliminated Sierra Nevada from the competition, inking a deal with Boeing to fly humans into space worth as much as $4.2 billion and a concurrent contract with SpaceX potentially worth $2.6 billion.

In an appearance on Monday at Houston's Johnson Space Center (JSC) with NASA officials, Boeing and SpaceX representatives outlined their plans for getting their commercial crew vehicles tested and operational. Below, NASA's Stephanie Schierholz hosts a panel comprising, from left, JSC director Dr. Ellen Ochoa, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders, Boeing's John Elbon, SpaceX's Gwynne Shotwell, and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke.

NASA SpaceX Boeing Panel/Credit: NASA

"It's an incredible testament to American ingenuity and know-how, and an extraordinary validation of the vision we laid out just a few years ago as we prepared for the long-planned retirement of the space shuttle," Bolden said. "This work is part of a vital strategy to equip our nation with the technologies for the future and inspire a new generation of explorers to take the next giant leap for America."

Elbon, vice president and general manager of Boeing's Space Exploration division, said the company would conduct a pad abort test with its CST-100 crew module in February 2017, an un-crewed test flight in April 2017, and finally, the first crewed test flight with a Boeing pilot and a NASA astronaut in July 2017.

SpaceX's timeline is even more ambitious, according to a report by NASA. A pad abort test of its "DragonRider" capsule is planned in just a few weeks, according to Shotwell, president of the private space firm. An in-flight abort test is scheduled for "later this year," with the first un-crewed flight test planned for late 2016 and first crewed flight test anticipated in early 2017, she said.

"We understand the incredible responsibility we've been given to carry crew," Shotwell said in a statement.

Both commercial crew spacecraft are large enough to carry up to seven astronauts, up from the three-person capsules used for NASA's Apollo program and as part of the Russian space agency's Soyuz program for taking crews to the International Space Station.

The Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules will be used by NASA to carry astronauts to the ISS, but the space agency and its private partners are also eyeing deep space missions such as a manned voyage to Mars.

"It's a great time to be a part of the American space program, which is on its way to Mars," Finke said at this week's event. "There's not another group on this planet, or off this planet, that wants the success of the Commercial Crew Program more than we do."

Bolden and NASA have received some criticism for their ambitious Mars plans, but the NASA Administrator once again made it clear that visiting the Red Planet is the space agency's main goal.

"It takes a lot of stuff to get off this planet and a whole lot more to get to Mars. But that is the ultimate destination," he said.

A First Look at the Falcon Heavy
Meanwhile, SpaceX on Tuesday released an animated video, below, showing its future Falcon Heavy launch vehicle lifting off from a Cape Canaveral launch pad and carrying what looks like a heavy satellite payload into space.

In the animation, the Falcon Heavy's two reusable, first-stage rockets break away and return to the launch pad using the Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) systems Space X has been testing during recent commercial missions. Once it separates from the payload, the second-stage booster is also shown returning to Earth—to the same Florida launch pad where it originated, in fact, though it may be that SpaceX would need to land the second stage somewhere else after the distance it travels.