NASA funds commercial space travel

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Space shuttle Endeavour is ready to fly it's 25th and final mission on April 29th. That brings us one step closer to the end of the U.S. space program as we know it and one step closer to the future of space travel. In preparation for that future NASA recently awarded $millions to several private contractors for the construction of space taxi's able to fly to the International Space Station after the shuttles have been retired.

Called the Commercial Crew Development Program, NASA's goal in this second round of grants is "to accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities and reduce the gap in American human spaceflight capability. Through this activity, NASA also may be able to spur economic growth as potential new space markets are created." the space agency said in a press release.

This week, NASA awarded between $22 million and $92.3 million to four different companies for work on commercial crew space transportation system concepts to include the design and development of elements of their systems.

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NASA funds commercial space travel originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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