NASA announced the two and a half winners of the third Commercial Crew development round this morning. The winners were SpaceX ($440M), Boeing ($460M) and Sierra Nevada Corporation ($212.5M), although those allocations are subject to Congressional approval.

Today's awards give a huge advantage to the three companies that got them, because competitors will need to fund their own development in its entirety. On the other hand, by partnering with the companies, NASA has managed to seed the development of five different manned space vehicles for under $1B so far, a leap forward for the evolving space passenger market. They've paid for it on a reward-for-progress basis, handing out pre-agreed amounts of money for each specified milestone.

SpaceX was well ahead of the other two competitors because of the unmanned Dragon, which has already berthed with the International Space Station. The company has borne the brunt of the development costs itself, putting in about $300 million of its own money in addition to about $75 million from NASA. DragonRider, the nickname for the manned Dragon spacecraft, will probably fly its first manned flight in 2015, coming down for an ocean landing with the aid of parachutes. However, SpaceX has completed the development of the SuperDraco thruster, which will serve primarily as a launch abort system but also allow the DragonRider to make powered landings on solid earth without parachutes.

DragonRider carries up to 7 passengers or a combination of crew and cargo. Like the cargo version of Dragon, DragonRider will ride to orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

A mockup of Boeing's CST-100 capsule has been drop-tested and Boeing is well along on their milestones. The spacecraft will initially land at sea, but eventually, like Dragon, it will make land-based landings that will greatly simplify operations compared to a splashdown. It will also carry up to 7 passengers, but will fly to orbit aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. Boeing has been partnering with Bigelow Aerospace, the private space station company based out of Nevada, on the CST-100.

Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft is an improved descendant of NASA's HL-20. That spacecraft's primary advantages stem from the fact that it was designed both as a transportation vehicle and as an emergency escape vehicle in case of problems at the International Space Station. It can land at almost any commercial airport within six hours of leaving the Station, and because it uses non-toxic fuels, it can be approached immediately after landing, and crews can exit as soon as the vehicle is stopped. Another big advantage is that as a flying (as opposed to plummeting) spacecraft, it reenters at two Gs of acceleration, rather than the more common 8 Gs of a conventional capsule. That's also a big plus with regard to a wounded crew member.

Like CST-100, Dream Chaser will fly to orbit aboard an Atlas 5.

Sierra Nevada's half award means that the company will need to come up with the other half themselves, of course, or slow down the pace of development. There's no word as of yet which strategy they intend to pursue.

ATK had been widely expected to make a showing this year in CCiCap because of its super-strong political lobby. The company surprised everyone last year by suddenly coming up with a sort of "FrankenRocket," named Liberty, made from pieces of other programs. One such piece was the composite crew module, a composite (carbon fiber) version of the Lockheed-Martin Orion spacecraft currently being developed for use with the Space Launch System. The first stage of Liberty will be the 5-segment solid rocket booster they've been developing for the SLS. But its second stage will be an Ariane V first stage. Since a first stage isn't meant to be lifted from below, a rocket equivalent of a spinal brace will be added to the standard Ariane V first stage.

ATK is widely expected to continue with their rocket development for the commercial market even without a CCiCap award.