James Dean

Florida Today

CAPE CANAVERAL — Boeing has joined two halves of a prototype Starliner crew capsule at Kennedy Space Center, where SpaceX continues to renovate a launch pad for launches of astronauts in Dragon capsules.

Company representatives and NASA on Tuesday said they are making good progress toward launches of astronauts on test flights in late 2017 or early 2018 that aim to end U.S. reliance on Russia for rides to orbit.

“Astronauts will once again fly from the Space Coast,” said Lisa Colloredo, associate manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, during a panel kicking off the 44th Space Congress in Cape Canaveral.

Company presentations included little detail on timelines, but SpaceX said it is on track to launch astronauts on a test flight to the International Space Station by late 2017. Boeing recently confirmed a slip of its crew test flight to February 2018.

Landed SpaceX rocket suffered 'max' damage

In a former shuttle hangar at KSC earlier this month, Boeing joined the clamshell halves of a CST-100 Starliner crew capsule being assembled as a precursor to flight models.

The so-called "structural test article" will be shipped to Huntington Beach, Calif., this summer for tests. Meanwhile, the main pieces of what Boeing calls “Spacecraft 1” have just arrived at KSC.

“We’re bringing hardware in. We’re moving hardware out. And it’s really nice to see the factory flowing the way it should be,” said Danom Buck, manufacturing engineering manager for Boeing.

Discussing SpaceX’s efforts to develop reusable rockets, Ben Reed, director of the company’s Commercial Crew Program, showed a video of the first landing by a Falcon 9 rocket booster at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in December, and employees’ celebration.

SpaceX sets sights on Mars mission by 2018

“I know that we’re going to feel like that, all of us are, when we put those first crew, those astronauts in there and watch them go up, and then bring them home,” said Reed. “It’s going to be that, I think, times 10 when we watch that happen, flying right here out at Kennedy.”

Upcoming SpaceX milestones include key engineering reviews of the Crew Dragon’s design and of its modifications to KSC's pad 39A, a former Saturn V and space shuttle pad where a new access arm and “white room” will be installed to lead astronauts to their capsules.

Buck said a crew access arm this summer is expected to be added to the new tower at Launch Complex 41 where Boeing's Starliner will lift off atop United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.

NASA in September 2014 awarded Boeing and SpaceX contracts to fly astronauts, worth up to $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. The space agency has wanted one of the companies ready to fly by late 2017.

Colloredo said the contracts will result in per seat prices averaging $58 million, about $23 million less than Russia's going rate for Soyuz seats.

Companies building habitat prototypes ahead of Mars mission

"The cost-effectiveness part, we weren’t 100% sure how that would turn out," she said. "It turns out it is a very cost-effective approach to go with the private industry."

All together, Colloredo said, the program will produce two certified crew systems for less than $5 billion, a relative bargain compared to historical costs to develop such systems.

Follow James Dean on Twitter: @flatoday_jdean