NASA awarded hundreds of millions of dollars Monday to a handful of companies vying to produce commercial spacecraft, as the US space agency ends its 30-year shuttle programme.
Four companies were awarded some 269.3 million dollars from NASA to develop and build commercial spacecraft that can carry astronauts into low-Earth orbit, dpa reported.
NASA is retiring its space shuttle fleet later this year, with just two more flights scheduled, leaving only Russia's Soyuz space capsules to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
The United States hopes to jump-start commercial space providers to bring astronauts aloft within the next several years, freeing the space agency to develop longer range vehicles for trips to Mars and other distant destinations.
"We're committed to safely transporting US astronauts on American- made spacecraft and ending the outsourcing of this work to foreign governments," NASA administrator Chares Bolden said in announcing the awards.
Boeing received 92.3 million dollars under NASA's Commercial Crew Development initiative. Also receiving awards were Sierra Nevada Corporation with 80 million dollars, Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) with 75 million dollars and Blue Origin with 22 million dollars.
Last year, NASA awarded 50 million dollars to many of the same companies in a first round of funding to study human spaceflight alternatives.