Boeing and SpaceX appear to be the front runners for NASA’s multibillion-dollar space taxi contracts, which will shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Boeing and not SpaceX seems to be primed to receive the contracts which could potentially be announced as early as this week.
While many expected Elon Musk’s upstart SpaceX to win the contracts, apparently NASA feels more comfortable with Boeing because the company has worked with NASA for years.
Picking Boeing would probably prove to be less risky and engineers from NASA and Boeing are very familiar with each other.
NASA wants to be able to transport astronauts back and forth from the ISS within three years so Boeing will definitely have their work cut out for them should the aerospace giant be lucky enough to receive the massive contracts.
SpaceX is still expected to receive a few smaller contracts from NASA which should prove to be interesting.
If NASA hires both Boeing and SpaceX, the USA will have an intense space travel competition on its hands for years to come.
