波音公司計劃研發“太空出租車”
Boeing has announced that it is to launch its CST-100 "space taxi", from the Orbiter Processing Facility used by the Space Shuttle at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The company's CST-100 spacecraft can carry up to seven passengers to destinations such as the International Space Station.
Boeing hopes the craft will be in orbit within four years - and start a new era of cheap, manned, commercial space flight.
NASA is counting on companies like Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and others to ferry cargo and astronauts to and from the International Space Station in three to five years.
Until then, the space agency will continue to shell out tens of millions of dollars per seat on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The Soyuz is the only way to get astronauts to and from the space station, ever since Atlantis returned from the final shuttle flight in July.
A Soyuz rocket failure in August highlighted the risk of relying on just one type of craft.
Boeing expects to start removing shuttle platforms and modifying the hangar to suit its own purposes in the next few months.
Boeing wants to ferry astronauts not only to the International Space Station, but to a commercial scientific outpost planned for orbit by Bigelow Aerospace. Each capsule will hold seven people. A test flight is planned by 2015.
NASA wants to turn the space center - long a government-only local - into a multi-user spaceport. Other buildings are also up for grabs.
Tourists, meanwhile, are about to gain entry into areas that were once strictly off limits.
On Tuesday, the Vehicle Assembly Building - where fuel tanks and booster rockets were attached to space shuttles - will open its doors to public bus tours for the first time since 1978.據英國《每日郵報》10月31日報道，波音公司近日宣佈，將從美國宇航局在佛羅里達州的肯尼迪航天中心，通過航天飛機使用的軌道飛行器處理設施發射CST-100號“太空出租車”。
該公司的CST-100號飛船最多可搭載7名乘客去往目的地，例如到達國際空間站。
波音公司希望飛船能在四年內進入軌道——由此開啓一個低價、可載人、商業化太空飛行的新時代。
美國宇航局希望依靠波音公司、太空探索技術公司以及其它航天公司在三到五年內實現貨物和宇航員在地球和國際空間站間的往返運送。
在那之前，宇航局還將繼續爲俄羅斯“聯盟號”宇宙飛船上的每個座位支付數千萬美金。
自從七月份“亞特蘭蒂斯”號結束最後一次太空飛行返回地球后，“聯盟號”就成爲了運送宇航員往返太空站的唯一途徑。
八月“聯盟號”的火箭發射事故提醒了僅僅只能依靠一種航天器的風險。
波音公司預期將在接下來的幾個月中移除航天飛機的平臺，並改造機庫，以滿足其自身需要。
波音公司不只想把宇航員送往國際空間站，還要將他們送到畢格羅航宇公司爲軌道運行所計劃的商業科學基地。每個航空艙將搭載七個人。計劃2015年前進行試飛。
美國宇航局想要把航天中心——長久以來僅供政府使用——轉變成爲多用戶的航天發射場地。其它建築也待價而沽。
同時，遊客也將有機會進入那些曾被嚴格限制進出的區域。
週二，飛行器裝配大樓——航天飛機的燃料箱和助推火箭進行裝配的地方——將敞開大門，開放公共巴士遊覽，這還是自1978年以來的第一次對外開放。
