Can private companies replace space shuttle? Congress warms to the idea.

From shop floors to launch pads at Cape Canaveral, momentum is building toward lofting the first commercial services to carry humans to and from the space station by the end of 2017.

The two companies NASA has selected for the job Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies are clearing initial, crucial milestones, and to keep the program moving, President Obama has proposed that the government spend $1.24 billion on the effort in fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. 1. That's up from $805 million the program received this year.

During the past five fiscal years, Congress repeatedly has provided less money for the program than the White House sought, although the gap has narrowed significantly. In the eyes of some analysts, Congress is increasingly warming to the program.

The 2017 target "will be here before we know it," and all indications are that the two companies are on pace to launch, says Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington-based organization promoting commercial human spaceflight.

Indeed, the United States finds itself in a unique position with regard to human-spaceflight technology, according to John Elbon, vice president and general manager for space exploration at Boeing

"Never before in the history of human spaceflight has there been so much going on all at once," he observed during a recent briefing on the status of NASA's commercial-crew program.

Beyond the work his company and SpaceX are performing to build a commercial capability for human spaceflight, Sierra Nevada Corporation is working on its Dream Chaser craft for carrying humans into low-Earth orbit.

In addition, companies such as Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and Bigelow Aerospace are developing hardware to commercialize various aspects of human spaceflight. And NASA is pressing ahead with its own Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule for deep-space exploration.

NASA's bid to turn over resupply of the space station to two commercial contractors began in 2010, when five companies received seed money. After whittling the number of companies to four and then three during the next two years, NASA picked Boeing and SpaceX as its two providers last September. The last contender to be eliminated, Sierra Nevada Corporation, filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, but the GAO ruled in NASA's favor in January.

Boeing and SpaceX already have passed one of NASA's five milestones: approval of their long-term plans for earning the agency's OK for carrying astronauts. Meanwhile, the companies have been busy.

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Can private companies replace space shuttle? Congress warms to the idea.