Boeing

Boeing has secured its second contract of this year to transport crew to the International Space Station (ISS) from NASA.

The contract is a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract, under which the agency has already awarded two contracts to Boeing and SpaceX, in May and November, respectively.

NASA has guaranteed four orders under CCtCap, which seeks to ensure launching of manned missions to ISS from US soil.

In a standard commercial crew mission to ISS, it will carry up to four crew members, sponsored by NASA or other agency and around 220p of pressurised cargo.

Under the deal, Boeing will use its Commercial Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) ‘Starliner’ spacecraft, United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and other related ground system to move crews to the ISS.

The mission is expected to launch in 2017.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme manager Kathy Lueders said: "Once certified by NASA, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon each will be capable of two crew launches to the station per year.

"Placing orders for those missions now really sets us up for a sustainable future aboard the International Space Station."

Following the completion of human rating certification, Boeing would be able to provide minimum two and maximum six missions to the space station, under a $4.2bn deal with NASA.

In order to carry out their first mission, both Boeing and SpaceX have started planning, building and procuring essential hardware and assets, through, NASA is yet to announce the company who will fly to the ISS first.

Boeing commercial crew programme vice-president and programme manager John Mulholland said: "As our company begins its second century, our Starliner program continues Boeing’s tradition of space industry innovation with commercial service to the space station.

"We value NASA’s confidence in the Starliner system to keep their crews safe."

"This will enable NASA and our partners to ramp up the important research being done every day for the benefit of all humanity."

Boeing has been carrying out various demonstrations including integrated design maturity, qualification test vehicle readiness as well as flight software reviews and checkout and control systems maturity for the mission.

Recently, United Launch Alliance completed construction of the main column of the Starliner crew access tower at Space Launch Complex-41.

International Space Station programme manager Kirk Shireman said: "With the commercial crew vehicles from Boeing and SpaceX, we will soon add a seventh crew member to International Space Station missions, which will significantly increase the amount of crew time to conduct research.

"This will enable NASA and our partners to ramp up the important research being done every day for the benefit of all humanity."

Image: Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will launch upon an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., starting in 2017. Photo: courtesy of Boeing