Nasa Backs 'shuttle Successors'

Nasa has since an denote of the companies it thinks might be closest to gift blurb systems to bring American astronauts in to space.

With its shuttles about to retire, the group has offered $270m (166m) of supports to 4 firms to help them developed designs for new orbiting vehicles.

Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp and SpaceX hope to sell wanderer "taxi" services to Nasa by mid-decade.

Until then, US crews will have go to the space hire on Russian rockets.

"The next American-flagged van to bring our astronauts in to space is going to be a US blurb provider," mentioned Ed Mango, Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme manager.

"The partnerships Nasa is combining with attention will encouragement the growth of multi-part American systems able of providing future access to low-Earth orbit."

The winning companies have a operation of concepts beneath developments.

SpaceX, that has garnered sufficient promotion recently, is maybe the many modernized in its plans. It has already flown a space station called Falcon 9 and a pill called Dragon. It is being offered $75m over the next year if it meets specific milestones in more advanced Dragon's crew-carrying capabilities.

The long-established Boeing firm stands to win the largest endowment depending on developments. It has a pill pattern called CTS-100 that could ride up 7 astronauts to the space station. The $92.3m Nasa encouragement will help Boeing obtain the van by to its rough pattern review.

Sierra Nevada Corporation has already received substantial financial encouragement in Nasa's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) effort, and is in line to obtain a serve 80m in the ultimate turn of funding. It is building a shuttle-like van that would launch atop a rocket.

The fourth recipient, Blue Origin, is a firm set up by Amazon.com owner Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin has kept sufficient of its space growth wake up secret, but it has requested supports from Nasa to help it developed systems for a cone-shaped organisation vehicle. It has been awarded up to 22m.

Perhaps only as engaging as the companies that have won awards are the companies that have longed for out.

These enclosed ATK that creates the plain space station boosters (SRBs) that lift the space convey off the ground. ATK wants to wed an expansion of these SRBs with the principal core theatre of Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. The concept, well known as Liberty, would be used to launch other companies' capsules and spaceplanes.

ATK will right away have to secure supports elsewhere if it wants to bring the Liberty thought forward.

Also omitted out on CCDev allowance is United Launch Alliance (ULA). This is the firm that operates Atlas and Delta rockets is to US Air Force and for Nasa.

These vehicles often circuit satellites, but ULA believes the rockets could be mutated to launch humans also.

Sierra Nevada, Boeing and Blue Origin had all talked about using an Atlas 5 to loft their draft organisation ships.

Where Monday's statement from Nasa leaves ULA's skeleton is uncertain. Again, it will must be use its own supports or find an associate if it wishes to go on with the plan to man-rate the Atlas and Delta rockets.

Nasa is interested that the next period of human spaceflight add a burly blurb element. It skeleton to significantly enlarge its seed appropriation in 2012.

The truth is not common by many in the US Congress who would pick Nasa to lead the growth of a convey inheritor along normal buying lines.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk