En rysk präst välsignar en av Roscosmos Soyuz-raketer. (Dmitri Lovetsky / TT NYHETSBYRÅN)

Skrotat rymdmonopol i Ryssland öppnar för Musk

Den ryska rymdmyndigheten Roscosmos har de senaste sju åren haft monopol på att flyga astronauter och kosmonauter till rymdstationen ISS. Det har varit lukrativt men håller nu på att ta slut – nästa år börjar Nasa samarbeta med privata aktörer, skriver Bloomberg.

Sedan Nasa skrotade sitt egna rymdfärjeprogram har Roscosmos tjänat 2,6 miljarder dollar på att flyga amerikansk personal och utrustning till ISS. Men nu hotar konkurrens intäkterna. Entreprenören Elon Musks rymdbolag Space X och Boeing har från och med nästa år ett avtal som gäller rymdtransporter av amerikanska astronauter.

bakgrund
 
Commercial Crew Development
Wikipedia (en)
Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) is a multiphase, space technology development program that is funded by the U.S. government and administered by NASA. The program is intended to stimulate development of privately operated crew vehicles to be launched into low Earth orbit. The program is run by NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO).In 2010, in the first phase of the program, NASA provided $50 million combined to five American companies; the money was intended for research and development into private-sector human spaceflight concepts and technologies. NASA solicited a second set of CCdev proposals for technology development projects lasting for a maximum of 14 months in October of that year. In April 2011, NASA announced they would award up to nearly $270 million to four companies as they met their CCDev 2 objectives. NASA awarded Space Act Agreements for the third phase, named CCiCap, in August 2012; this would last until 2014. CCiCap is followed by CCtCap with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 15 contracts, which formed the fourth and final phase of the program. Contracts were awarded to SpaceX and Boeing in September 2014. Test flights of both spacecraft are scheduled for late 2018. SpaceX and Boeing have contracts with NASA to each supply six flights to ISS between 2019 and 2024. The first group of astronauts assigned to fly on the two selected spacecraft were announced on August 3, 2018.
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