NASA reveals astronauts for commercial U.S. space capsules
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA yesterday assigned the astronauts who will ride the first commercial capsules into orbit next year and bring crew launches back to the U.S.
SpaceX and Boeing are shooting for a test flight of their capsules by the end of this year or early next, with the first crews flying from Cape Canaveral, Fla., by next spring or summer.
Nine astronauts were named to ride the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner capsules — five on the first crew flights and four on the second round of missions to the International Space Station.
“For the first time since 2011, we are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who made the introductions at Johnson Space Center.
U.S. astronauts now take Russian capsules to the space station, with NASA paying as much as $82 million a seat.
Boeing’s first Starliner crew will include a former NASA astronaut who commanded the last shuttle flight in 2011, Chris Ferguson, who’s now a Boeing employee. The other commercial crew members are still with NASA. All have a military background.
The seven men and two women pumped their fists in the air and gave thumbsup as they strode onto the stage to cheers from the crowd.
“As a test pilot, it doesn’t get any better than this,” said astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann, a Naval aviator who will make her first trip into space on the first Starliner crew.
Besides Ferguson and Mann, the initial commercial crew members are: Eric Boe, Sunita Williams and John Cassada riding on Boeing. Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will fly with SpaceX.