New Spaceships Win NASA's Nod

Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles currently visit the space station, and Europe's massive cargo hauler, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, is scheduled for a debut flight next month. Japan also is developing a capsule that can reach the station.

Weapons proliferation concerns sparked the U.S. Congress to ban NASA from buying Russian space services, though the agency finagled an exemption that lasts until 2011. Unless the exemption can be extended, the United States will have no way to fly astronauts to the station after the shuttle is retired.

For now, Orbital has no plans to include passenger transport as part of its new launch service, executive vice president Antonio Elias told Discovery News.

But it is keeping its options open for the future. The project does include development of a re-entry capsule that could ferry home about 2,250 pounds of cargo.

Orbital plans to launch its Tauras 2 rocket and Cygnus spacecraft from Virginia's Wallops Island. SpaceX plans to fly from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Related Links:

Irene Klotz's blog: Free Space

Orbital Sciences

How Stuff Works: Rocket Engines