On Monday NASA announced it was distributing $269 million to four companies for them to develop spacecraft to take astronauts into orbit. The investment is an Obama administration gamble that will enable commercial companies to get people to and from orbit in quicker time and with less cost.

Richard Branson and Mark Shuttleworth laid the foundations for Joe Citizen to get into space. It’s surprising that the US has taken so long to adopt a public/private strategy with the ongoing financial difficulties that the country faces.

NASA said it received 22 proposals, and needed to attain additional information from eight of the applicants before deciding on the winners.

SpaceX, which already has a contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station, will receive $75 million toward furthering its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, which is suitable for passengers. Sierra Nevada Corporation will receive $80 million for its small space plane design.

Boeing will receive $92.3 million for a capsule design, and Blue Origin – a quiet, enigmatic company started by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com – will receive $22 million to work on its capsule design.

In much the same way as an industrial building contract might work, the money will finance one year of work beginning in May, and the companies will be paid as they meet objectives outlined in their proposals.

Philip McAlister, acting director of the program said:

We are hopefully going to make a lot of progress over this next year so we can get there as soon as we can. The strategy is still in development.

McAlister hopes that by midway through this decade we will see commercial providers servicing the International Space Station.

[Source: NYTimes]