SpaceX and Boeing wait on funding decision from Nasa for space taxis

Entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX and plane maker Boeing will find out this month what share, if any, they will receive of more than US$3 billion in funding to resume US manned space flights with the first commercial venture to fly humans into orbit.

The contract to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017 in so-called space taxis would end US reliance on Russian rockets that began three years ago when the last space shuttle was retired. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration set a deadline to announce the award this month.

For Musk, winning would be a pivotal step towards his dream of colonising Mars, while a Boeing victory would extend its half-century history with the US space programme. A third rival, a company called Sierra Nevada, offers a winged, shuttle-type vehicle as it seeks to expand beyond supplying rockets for sub-orbital tourist trips on British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

"Boeing is the safe choice, SpaceX is the exciting choice and Sierra Nevada the interesting choice," said Loren Thompson, an analyst with Lexington Institute, a research group.

Nasa is charting a new direction 45 years after sending humans to the moon, looking to private industry for missions near earth, such as commuting to and from the space station. Commercial operators would develop space tourism while the space agency focuses on distant trips to Mars or asteroids.