NASA picks astronauts for commercial spaceflights | Destination Space

NASA has selected the first four astronauts to train to be launched into space on private rockets, and all four are veterans of space.

The assignments will be to work with SpaceX and Boeing to serve as crewmembers on upcoming test flights of the new space taxis.

The four chosen are Colonel Robert Behnken, Captain Sunita Williams, Colonel Eric Boe and Colonel Douglas Hurley, all experienced astronauts with years of experience in space between them. Hurley served on the last shuttle mission, STS-135. Boe flew on STS-126 and STS-133. Each attended test pilot school; Williams specializes in helicopters. Williams flew up on STS-116 to begin a 192 day stay in space in 2006, returned to the ISS in 2012, and has accumulated more than 50 hours of extravehicular activity, near the top of all astronauts.

“These distinguished, veteran astronauts are blazing a new trail, a trail that will one day land them in the history books and Americans on the surface of Mars”, Bolden said.

“There are real economic benefits to bolstering America’s emerging commercial space market”, Bolden said.

For these reasons, our commercial crew program is a worthy successor to the incredible 30-year run of the Space Shuttle Program.

Bolden said NASA is working toward launching astronauts in a commercial spacecraft in 2017.

The four astronauts are part of a long-term programme created to replace the space shuttles, which will first return space launches to American soil, and eventually facilitate the long-awaited mission to Mars, which is due in the 2030s.

In the meantime, NASA has been paying Russian Federation tens of millions of dollars per ride on Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts; the latest tab is $76 million. More than 350 American companies in 36 states are working on the commercial crew initiative. Since September 2014, Hurley has been appointed the assistant director for the commercial crew program under the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) at Johnson Space Center.

“What’s more, each mission will carry four crew members instead of three, along with 100 kilograms [220 pounds] of materials to support the science and research we conduct on the worldwide Space Station”, he said. Boeing and SpaceX will own and operate their own fleet of vehicles and be able to sell human spaceflight services to other customers.