NASA have announced that they have selected four astronauts that will fly in commercial "space taxis" built by SpaceX and Boeing in the Commercial Crew Program.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named the four veterans who will apparently fly on space capsules built by these private space companies under NASA where each pilot already has experience flying in space, twice.
The commercial crew astronauts are namely Air Force Col. Robert Behnken who is the last head of the astronaut office, Air Force Col. Eric Boe who was also part of Discovery space shuttle's last crew, retired Marine Col. Douglas Hurley who was the last pilot of the final shuttle crew and Navy Capt. Sunita Williams who has spent time at the International Space Station, twice.
According to Bolden, these are very distinguished, veteran astronauts who will now blaze the trail again where they will one day land on the surface of Mars.
The test flights for these commercial space vehicles are slated in 2017 where the first launch will be from Cape Canaveral, Florida where all the past space shuttles were also launched.
To date, NASA has been relying on the Russians' Soyuz spacecraft to transport their astronauts to the space station where the latest mission cost about US $76 million. However, Bolden says that if an American spacecraft were to ferry astronauts to space, each astronaut will cost $58 million to transport where the mission can now carry four astronauts as opposed to three along with additional scientific experiments.
The four selected astronauts will now cooperate and work closely with SpaceX and Boeing in order to develop the commercial spacecrafts. The crew ranges from ages 44 to 50, who have been astronauts for more than 15 years, all attending pilot schools where Williams have a specialization in helicopters.
NASA reveals that the four were chosen for the mission for their spaceflight experience where they all have a combined total of more than 400 days in space and more than 85 hours of spacewalking time. Apparently, the world record holder for an astronaut who has spent the most time during spacewalks is a woman, where Williams lived in the orbiting space lab in 2012.
NASA has awarded contracts for SpaceX and Boeing for the Commercial Crew Program that costs about US $7 billion which requires at least one test flight and one NASA astronaut on board.