NASA awards Boeing and SpaceX with $6.2bn ‘Space Taxi’ contract

(SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule – Photo Credit: SpaceX)

NASA has announced that Boeing and SpaceX will begin transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station from 2017 under a groundbreaking new contract worth $6.2 billion, bringing the space agency one step closer to launching into space from U.S. soil once again.

Expedition 39/40 crew depart the International Space Station and safely land in Kazakhstan

(The crew, and the recovery teams, are pictured shortly after landing – Photo Credit: NASA)

Three crew members from the International Space Station have safely returned to Earth after spending 169 days living and working in space.

Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) successfully landed their Soyuz spacecraft southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 2:23 a.m on September 11th (10:23 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 10 and 8:23 a.m., Sept. 11, in Dzhezkazgan).

NASA TV to broadcast the departure and landing of the International Space Station’s Expedition 39/40 crew

(NASA astronaut, and the space station’s Expedition 40 commander, Steve Swanson along with cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, both Roscosmos flight engineers – Photo Credit: NASA)

NASA Television have confirmed that they will broadcast the departure and landing of Steve Swanson, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev: crew members aboard the International Space Station who will end their six month stay on the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth on September 10th.