Topic: NASA awards seed money to two rocket companies

[Nemesis]

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NASA has chosen two rocket companies to develop spaceships capable of sending cargo – and possibly crew – to the International Space Station (ISS). The first test flights could come in just two years.

The agency's goal is to find alternative ways of reaching the station, as the space shuttle is set to retire in 2010. After that, the US will not have a domestic spaceship that can transport astronauts and gear to the station until its own Crew Exploration Vehicle flies in about 2014. It expects to need six ISS flights per year after the shuttle's retirement.

So it will give seed money to Space Exploration Technologies (Space-X), based in El Segundo, California, and Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK), based in Oklahoma City, both in the US, to develop their launchers.

"These companies have shown us they have the potential to be competitive, even globally," says Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, US.

[Sirgod]

Cool OKC rocks, and needs the jobs since GM has closed.

Stephen