Congress, NASA agree to thin out commercial spaceflight partners for 'space taxi' program

Congress has twisted NASA's arm on a new deal for the "Commercial Crew Program," designed to get private spaceflight companies to ferry astronauts into space. Senator Frank Wolf wants NASA to scale back its grants to four companies: SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada down to two, while a third gets a retainer in case one of those chosen pair fails. The administration will be examining the financial health and business viability of each company before doling out the cash -- with one of those named above effectively being shut out of the market. Although, we imagine SpaceX did itself no harm at all when it became the first commercial enterprise to get a capsule to the ISS.

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Congress, NASA agree to thin out commercial spaceflight partners for 'space taxi' program originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.