Nasa picks astronaut crew ship designs

The US space agency Nasa has picked the companies it hopes can take the country's astronauts back into space, the BBC reported.

It is awarding up $6.2bn to the Boeing and SpaceX firms, to help them finish the development of new crew capsules.

Since the space shuttles were retired in 2011, the Americans have relied on Russia and its Soyuz vehicles to get to the International Space Station.

Boeing and SpaceX should have their seven-person crew ships ready to take over the role by late 2017.

Disagreements over Moscow's actions in Ukraine have made the current Soyuz arrangement increasingly unpalatable for Washington.

So has the price per flight now being charged - at $70m (£43m) per US astronaut seat. American officials regard this as excessive.

The Obama administration charged Nasa in 2010 with the job of "seeding" indigenous, competing companies to restore American capability.

Since then, the agency has released nearly $1.5bn in funding, with most of this money going to Boeing in Texas, California's SpaceX and a third firm - the Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).

The Boeing Corporation is going to receive a fixed-price Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCtCap) contract worth up to $4.2bn.

SpaceX will get a contract for a lesser amount - $2.6bn.

Both companies must meet specified technical milestones to pick up what will be staged payments.