The Space Shuttle Endeavour with the Leonardo Multi-purpose Logistics module in the payload bay is seen docked to the International Space Station (ISS) in this November 27, 2008 image from NASA TV.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet)-- NASA on Tuesday awarded two up-and-coming private space launch companies contracts worth 3.5 billion U.S. dollars to ship cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) after the space shuttle's planned retirement in 2010. 

    The two chosen companies are Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a Hawthorne, California-based company headed by PayPal founder Elon Musk, and Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp (OSC), and they are responsible for delivering supplies to the space station.

    The contracts will fulfil NASA's needs to provide freight and services to the ISS by relying on private launch companies after the agency will retire its three space shuttles in 2010, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space flight, adding that the contracts are essential to NASA's future activities and operations.

    Neither company would ferry astronauts to the station, but each would be responsible for restocking the space station with experiments and provisions. Orbital Sciences would get up to 1.9 billion dollars for eight flights, starting in 2011. SpaceX would get up to 1.6 billion dollars for 12 flights starting in 2010.

    SpaceX and OSC will transport between 40 and 70 percent of NASA's freight to the ISS -- 20 percent in 2011 and peak at 70 percent in 2013, Gerstenmaier was quoted as saying.

    The cargo will range from materials for scientific experiments, spare parts and the resupply of food and other commodities.

    "This is the first time that NASA has ever bought a commercial service as a substantial element of a human spaceflight program," said James Muncy, a space policy consultant based out of Virginia.

(Agencies)