SpaceX To Send Astronauts To The International Space Station In 2017

NASA said it has a contract with SpaceX, Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp., to send astronauts to the International Space Station in 2017. This is the second of four commercial orders NASA has made related to the International Space Station, with Boeing Company receiving the first in May. "It is important to have at least two healthy and robust capabilities from U.S. companies to deliver crew and critical scientific experiments from American soil to the space station throughout its lifespan," Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, wrote in a press release. NASA said a commercial provider will be less expensive than what the agency pays the Russian Federal Space Agency.