Having previously indicated that it would be up to the service providers to provide the crew for any commecial manned test spaceflights as part of the NASA Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) programme, now it seems that NASA has performed a partial U-turn. According to reports, NASA is now demanding that successful biddes will have to have at least one NASA astronaut on any test flight that goes to the International Space Station (ISS). The flight should take place in 2015 or 2016.
Comment by David Todd: Having already flown cargo flights ot the ISS with its Dragon capsules, SpaceX is currently favourite to make this manned flight first to the ISS, with Boeing and Sierra Nevada being the other competitors for funding.
