Nasa has officially ordered a human spaceflight mission from a private company for the first time.
Boeing will provide a spaceflight for a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station, using its CST-100 capsule by the end of 2017.
The mission will not necessarily be the first private spaceflight for human crew to launch on Nasa’s behalf — that honour could still go to SpaceX, currently developing its own crewed Dragon capsule, and from whom Nasa are expected to order a mission in the near future.
By: Michael Rundle,
