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This undated photo provided by NASA on Friday, August 3, 2018 shows, from left to right, Sunita Williams, Josh Cassada, Eric Boe, Nicole Mann, Christopher Ferguson, Douglas Hurley, Robert Behnken, Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover standing in front of models of Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsules and SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. In October 2018, NASA stated that the first commercial test flights had slipped from the end of 2018 to 2019. (NASA via AP)
The beginnings of SpaceX and Boeing capsules are on hold until next year.
NASA said this week that the first commercial test flights have slipped from the end of the year to next year. SpaceX turns for a shakedown in January of its Dragon capsule, with no one on board. Boeing aims to try in March its Starliner capsule, also less astronauts.
These tests would be followed by flights with crews next summer. SpaceX is targeting June and Boeing, August. It would be eight years after the last ascent of the astronauts of the United States.
Since the withdrawal of NASA shuttles in 2011, US astronauts have to rely on Russian capsules to get to and from the International Space Station. Soyuz tickets cost more than $ 81 million each.
NASA points out that these latest launch dates are subject to other changes.
"These are new spacecraft, and the engineering teams still have a lot of work to do before the systems are ready to fly," said Phil McAlister, director of NASA's space flight development, on Thursday. .
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