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According to an audit report from the US government, the two rocket companies are not expected to send astronauts soon.
SpaceX and Boeing are scheduled to make several rocket flights after NASA signs a contract with Soyuz. released in November 2019.
The two companies were approached by NASA four years ago in 2014 to develop rockets capable of transporting astronauts to the ISS.
Fruit of SpaceX's work, the Dragon Crew Module may contain However, the Independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) has stated that the United States appeared to be suffering from a gap in access to the orbital laboratory [19659002] The GAO said: "There may be a lack of access to If NASA has begun to discuss potential options, it has no plan of urgency to ensure an uninterrupted presence on the SSI beyond 2019.
"It is possible that neither one nor the other is ready until August 2020, leaving a potential gap of access for at least nine months. "
Before take-off from the ISS, the GAO said NASA must verify that the spacecraft of both contractors are absolutely safe for manned missions.
But l & # 39; agency noted that NASA does not currently have consistent approach to compute this metric and that the results vary in The 47-page report also accused NASA of managing a multi-billion dollar program "without confidence" in launch schedules.
The reports stated: "We found that both contractors had updated schedules indicating delays – at least one key event, but NASA officials told us that they lack confidence in these dates until they are officially communicated to NASA by contractors.
"As a result, NASA runs a multi-billion dollar program The GAO has suggested that NASA could bypass the SpaceX enigma by buying additional astronaut seats to Russians.
But the report conceded that this could delay NASA's projects until 2021 because the manufacturing and contracting process usually takes three years.
NASA officially ended its space shuttle program in 2011 and used Russian rockets to orbit astronauts.
The GAO report adds that the risk of future delays is "critical information" for NASA.
When SpaceX entered the scene in 2008, the American company founded by South African Billionaire Elon Musk, was rewarded with an ISS Cargo replenishment contact.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is expected to be certified for spaceflight by the beginning of 2020.
Boeing is developing an inhabited space capsule nicknamed the Starliner that will seat up to seven astronauts by launch.
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