NASA Unveils the Astronauts Who Will Relaunch Human Space Flights From US Soil (washingtonpost.com)

NASA on Friday announced the crews of the first flights from U.S. soil since the space shuttle retired in 2011, an elite group of astronauts that the agency hopes will help open a new era of space travel. From a report: The crews would fly on spacecraft developed not by NASA but by two corporations, SpaceX and Boeing, which are under contract to provide a taxi-like service to the International Space Station. On the first human test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, NASA selected astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Mann will join Boeing executive Chris Ferguson. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley would fly on the first human test flight of SpaceX's Dragon capsule. On the first operational mission to the International Space Station, Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada would fly for Boeing. NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins would fly Dragon's first operational mission to the space station.

Comments

Re:Interesting looking spacesuits

[Strider-]

The SpaceX ones, at least, have been through the vacuum chamber testing etc... and the one that was flown on the Falcon Heavy Test Flight, sitting in the roadster, was real as well (though I don't know if it was actually pressurized).

Re:What's the purpose of NASA?

[Bruce Perens]

NASA needs to operate more like the FAA, be a regulatory service for keeping everyone safe and managing "air space". (Or, would that be "space space"?)

Do you know who does it now? The FAA. They license launches. They should keep doing so. NASA is a research organization.

President Trump made an announcement to investigate the creation of a military space force, which if created makes many missions from NASA redundant.

Do you know who does military space missions now? The Air Force. Not NASA, NASA is a civilian research organization. Creating a "space wing" takes a department of the Air Force and makes it a separate service. Just as the AAF, the Army Air Force, became the Air Force. Creating a "Space Force" does nothing to or about NASA's mission.