It was an unqualified success for American private industry participating in NASA’s commercial space adventure. SpaceX put $600 million into the project, while NASA donated $278 million in seed money.

SpaceX says it could be delivering supplies to the International Space Station by the end of this or early next year. The company added that astronauts could fly into orbit in upgraded Dragon capsules as early as 2014.

New Competition For a Place in Space

The success of the new boys on the block has the old boys nervous, and this works to the advantage of NASA and American taxpayers.

Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft is obviously the Cadillac of the entries in this great second space race, and the company’s vice president and program manager of Commercial Crew Programs, John Elbon, told me, “Assuming adequate NASA funding, we can have our Commercial Crew Transportation System operational in 2015.”

Elbon added, “Boeing is offering a complete integrated turnkey operation that includes a launch vehicle.”

Wow! That means American astronauts would be riding their own ships to and from the International Space Station in three or four years, not seven or more. Until then they will be hitching a ride on Russian spacecraft, a fact that sticks in the craw of many.

The key here would be the launch vehicle for Boeing’s CST 100.

Standing by is arguably the world’s most reliable rocket: a U.S.-European vehicle which is an upgraded version of the space shuttle’s solid booster rocket that has flown perfectly 216 times, and France’s Ariane-5 rocket as a second stage that has flown 41 times successfully.

The rocket, called Liberty, is being offered by ATK Space Launch Systems. It’s capable of carrying all crew vehicles in development today.

“Both stages of Liberty were designed for human rating from the beginning,” said ATK Vice President Charlie Precourt, a veteran astronaut and former director of NASA’s flight crew operations. The other rockets haven’t yet gone through the time-consuming process to be certified as safe for flying humans.

What’s more, an earlier variant of Liberty has already flown in the form of the Ares 1-X rocket, and it already has its launch pad and facilities to accommodate astronauts. Although the Ares project was canceled last year, that experience gives Liberty an extra boost in this second space race. “We can perform a test flight in late 2013 and deliver crew by 2015,” Precourt said.

Boeing is currently talking with the Liberty folks about using its rocket to boost the CST-100’s first flights with hopes of making a decision next month.