The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Monday that it was distributing $269 million to four companies to develop spacecraft to take its astronauts to orbit in the future.

The awards, part of what NASA calls its commercial crew development program, are a bet, pushed by the Obama administration, that commercial companies will be able to get people to and from orbit more quickly and less expensively.

Philip McAlister, acting director of the program, said NASA received 22 proposals and sought additional information on 8 of them before deciding on the winners.

The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., which already has a contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station, will receive $75 million toward making its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule suitable for passengers. SpaceX had two successful launchings of its Falcon 9 last year, the second with an empty Dragon capsule that successfully orbited the planet before parachuting back to Earth.