Nasa selects four astronauts to fly first commercial space missions: Boeing and Space X ..
Channel: Aliens insider
Date: 2015-07-11

Nasa selects four astronauts to fly first commercial space missions: Boeing and Space X test flights scheduled for 2017 could bring landing on Mars closer to reality
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3156038/Nasa-selects-four-astronauts-fly-commercial-space-missions-Boeing-Space-X-test-flights-scheduled-2017-bring-landing-Mars-closer-reality.html
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Nasa has selected four veteran astronauts to lead the way back into orbit from US soil.

Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden named the four who will fly on capsules built by private companies - SpaceX and Boeing. Each astronaut has test pilot experience and has flown twice in space.

The commercial crew astronauts are: Air Force Col. Robert Behnken, until recently head of the astronaut office; Air Force Col Eric Boe, part of shuttle Discovery's last crew; retired Marine Col Douglas Hurley, pilot of the final shuttle crew; and Navy Capt. Sunita Williams, a two-time resident of the International Space Station.
'These distinguished, veteran astronauts are blazing a new trail, a trail that will one day land them in the history books and Americans on the surface of Mars,' Bolden said on his blog.

SpaceX and Boeing are aiming for test flights to the space station by 2017. It will be the first launch of astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida, since the space shuttles retired in 2011.