NASA CCDev 2 Briefing 28 April 2011

Today there was a briefing at the Kennedy Space Center detailing NASA's recent awards of more than $269 million for the continued development of a commercial transportation systems to carry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit. Four U.S. companies received the awards in the second round of NASA's Commercial Crew Development, or CCDev 2, effort. It is expected that commercial crew transport will free NASA to concentrate on developing and building new technologies for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. This is a step in the right direction for human spaceflight. This is what we all want. We want NASA to refocus on going back to the Moon, to Near Earth Asteroids and eventually to Mars.