NASA Announces Plan to Invest in Commercial Crew Concepts | Commercial Spaceflight Federation

By John Gedmark, Exec. Dir., CSF, Posted 08/06/09

Link: http://www.commercialspaceflight.org/?p=458

"Today (Aug-4-09) NASA released information regarding its intention to invest $50 million of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act stimulus funding in multiple competitively awarded, funded agreements for commercial crew concepts. This new program, known as the Commercial Crew Development or “CCDev,” represents a new milestone in the development of an orbital commercial human spaceflight sector. By maturing “the design and development of commercial crew spaceflight concepts and associated enabling technologies and capabilities,” the program will allow several companies to move a few steps forward towards the ultimate goal of full demonstration of commercial human spaceflight to orbit."  This release from NASA opens the door to commercial transport of humans in space, a true milestone in the realm of human spaceflight.