SpaceX, Boeing land NASA contracts to carry astronauts to space

In a move that returns the U.S. to manned spaceflight, NASA has awarded Boeing and California-based SpaceX with contracts worth a total of $6.8 billion to launch astronauts into space. The contracts mark a significant shift for the space agency that grounded the space shuttle and relies on Russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Awarding the contracts -- one to an aerospace stalwart and another to an upstart -- also marked new realities of funding space missions: They must be affordable. And it returns Southern California, once the epicenter for Apollo and space shuttle development, to the forefront of spaceflight.The contracts landed by Hawthorne-based SpaceX and Chicago-based Boeing Co. are aimed at continuing the final development of spacecraft that will take astronauts to the space station.

Under the contracts, the companies will have a goal of performing a test flight to the space station with a NASA astronaut in 2017. SpaceX, which will use the Dragon V2 capsule it unveiled in May, is getting a contract worth $2.6 billion, and Boeing, which will use the CST-100 capsule it has been developing, is getting a contract worth $4.2 billion, NASA said. The contract amounts were based on the companies' proposals, but both have the same requirements, the agency said. Each contract covers development and certification efforts and a crewed demonstration flight, as well as special studies and a maximum of six missions, the agency said.