o NASA awarded about $270 million to four commercial companies on April 18 to develop rockets and spacecraft capable of flying astronauts into orbit and to the International Space Station. The biggest share ($92.3 million) went to Boeing. Other awards went to Sierra Nevada Corp., $80 million; Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), $75 million; and Blue Origin, $22 million.

The thought of riding a controlled explosion into an environment that can’t support human life might strike some people as material for a nightmare.

After the final Discovery flight, interviewers asked the astronauts if they’d noticed any clanks and rattles while riding in a shuttle that had 148 million miles on the odometer.

There are plenty of aspects about life in space that could inspire a techno-thriller. But those aren’t the things astronauts tend to worry about, said Camas native Mike Barratt, a member of the final Discovery crew. (Atlantis ended the space shuttle era with a final flight this month.)

“What you need to understand is that astronauts are a lot more afraid of screwing up than blowing up,” Barratt said July 23 at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.