Astronauts Will Launch From American Soil Again In Less Than A Year

from http://www.iflscience.com

July 2011 was the last time that astronauts launched from American  soil, on board Atlantis on the final flight of the Space Shuttle  program. Now, NASA has revealed that by June next year, manned American  launches will begin again. In a brief blog post,  they announced new target launch dates for two upcoming private  spacecraft. These are the SpaceX Crew Dragon (or Dragon 2) and the  Boeing CST-100 Starliner. They will launch atop a Falcon 9 and Atlas V  rocket respectively from Cape Canaveral in Florida. SpaceX are hoping to complete an unmanned flight of the capsule in  February 2018, with a manned flight in June 2018. Boeing is targeting a  June 2018 test, and the first crewed flight in August 2018. These spacecraft are being developed as part of NASA’s Commercial  Crew Program. On these initial launches, each vehicle will be capable of  taking four people to space, with the International Space Station (ISS)  the ultimate target. Eventually, however, each may be able to take up to seven people into  orbit. Destinations include not just the ISS, but perhaps private space  stations and possibly the Moon one day. “NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will return human spaceflight  launches to US soil, providing reliable and cost-effective access to  low-Earth orbit on systems that meet our safety and mission  requirements,” NASA wrote. 

read the full article here: http://www.iflscience.com/space/astronauts-will-launch-from-american-soil-again-in-less-than-a-year/