NASA approves 3 astronauts on Boeing's first crew flight to station

NASA has changed its astronaut contract with Boeing to let the company carry three people, not two, on the first crewed flight of its Starliner spaceship to the International Space Station and to keep them there up to six months instead of the planned two weeks.

Boeing employees in Huntsville are working on the Starliner, and NASA said this week that the company plans to fly the spaceship for the first time this year. That would be a test flight to the space station without a crew.

"This contract modification provides NASA with additional schedule margin if needed," NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier said Thursday. "We appreciate Boeing's willingness to evolve its flight to ensure we have continued access to space for our astronauts. Commercial space transportation to low-Earth orbit from U.S. soil is critical for the agency and the nation."

Other reports suggest that expecting either Boeing or SpaceX to fly astronauts this year is optimistic. SpaceX is the second commercial company working on an astronaut taxi to the station, and federal auditors have told Congress they don't expect either company's ship to be ready until 2019.

NASA's current contract with the Russians to ferry Americans to the station ends in fall 2019. One of the main reasons for contracting with Boeing and SpaceX, beyond the value of flying Americans on American ships, is to stop paying Soyuz seat prices approaching $75 million each.

So far, Boeing is the only one of the two commercial crew carriers to ask NASA to let it change the first crewed flight. NASA told spacepolicyonline.com that, if SpaceX makes a similar request, the agency "will review it through the normal procurement process."

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