NASA has given its seal of approval (and many money) to SpaceX and 3 other private companies, as a part of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) initiative — a program designed to spur the construction of U.S. commercial spaceflight. The agency awarded a complete of $270 million to the four lucky winners, with Boeing receiving $92.3 million to aid develop its CST-100 capsule design, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation garnering $80 million, on the way to go toward its shuttle-like Dream Chaser craft. The smallest prize ($22 million) went to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin , that is reportedly seeking to create a cone-shaped craft able to carrying crew members into the abyss. After which, needless to say, there’s SpaceX, the proud recipient of a groovy $75 million in NASA funds. The California-based company has already successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule , and is currently engaged on the Falcon Heavy — a 22-story craft heralded because the “world’s strongest rocket.” NASA’s extra dough should give somewhat boost to SpaceX’s projects, however the funds are contingent upon improvements in Dragon’s crew-carrying capacities, to be applied over a higher year. If all goes well, we may even see this kind of companies launch an intergalactic ‘taxi’ service by the center of the last decade. Saddle up!
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