Boeing Puts its New Spacecraft on Display
Monday, June 9, 2014
By: Amy Green

June 9, 2014 | WMFE, Orlando -- NASA is expected to announce in August the space company that will replace the shuttle program in launching astronauts to the International Space Station. Among the candidates is Boeing with its new CST-100. The spacecraft was on display Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

[Photo: Sen. Bill Nelson (left) and former astronaut Chris Ferguson discuss Boeing's new CST-100. By Taisha Henry]  

The capsule-shaped CST-100 is a compact car of a spacecraft compared with the space truck that was the shuttle. 

Boeing has been working on the CST-100 since 2010. But John Elbon of Boeing says it'll be tough to carry on without a NASA contract.

He compared this moment in space exploration to the beginnings of aviation.

"You know you couldn't tell really where the market was going. If somebody would have described the U.S. or the world's commercial airline industry and business the way it is today when it first started nobody would have believed that, right?"

SpaceX and Sierra Nevada also are competing for a NASA contract. It's possible the space agency will award more than one.

NASA is getting out of the business of launching astronauts to the International Space Station so it can concentrate on sending astronauts to an asteroid and Mars.