NASA unveils the astronauts who will relaunch human space flights from U.S. soil

Source: The Washington Post



The new generation of pilots will fly on company spaceships.

By Christian Davenport
August 3 at 11:36 AM

HOUSTON — NASA on Friday announced the crews of the first flights from U.S. soil since the space shuttle retired in 2011, an elite group of astronauts that the agency hopes will help open a new era of space travel.

The crews would fly on spacecraft developed not by NASA but by two corporations, SpaceX and Boeing, which are under contract to provide a taxi-like service to the International Space Station.

On the first human test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, NASA selected astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Mann will join Boeing executive Chris Ferguson. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley would fly on the first human test flight of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

On the first operational mission to the International Space Station, Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada would fly for Boeing. NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins would fly Dragon’s first operational mission to the space station.

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Clockwise from top left: NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Eric Boe. (Photos by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/03/nasa-unveil-astronauts-who-will-relaunch-human-flights-us-soil/