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tonight NASA SpaceX Boeing three organizations joining forces to send crew to the International Space Station and hopefully fight crime like the Superfriends but why doesn't have some need Boeing and SpaceX anyway and in these newfound partnerships who's gonna make the friendship bracelets I'm Claire Reilly welcome to watch this space from the CNET studios in Sydney this is your guide to everything on earth you need to know about space and tonight we're kicking off the new year with a look at NASA's a bizarre love triangle that's right NASA is teaming up with Boeing and SpaceX to get to space faster with a Commercial Crew program or CCP at CCR there we go the CCP is NASA's public-private partnership set up to develop new spacecraft and launch systems to send humans into low-earth orbit and to the International Space Station it's NASA's equivalent of saying we've been shooting humans into space for 50 years and we're pretty bloody sick of paying for it all but Commercial Crew program sounds a little less spicy the idea is to outsource work to make NASA space program more cost-effective while making sure it can still send crew to the ISS it's like mom encouraging her feckless teenage son to get a job at Burger King sure NASA is happy to provide the astronauts who work on the ISS but you better believe it's not going to keep driving them to work in the NASA station wagon I mean Kobe your friend Elon just got a car can't you get a ride with him NASA is no stranger to working with other companies to get its missions off the proverbial and literal ground it's worked with Lockheed Martin to develop supersonic aircraft it's made a virtual crew member with Xerox and it's even signed an agreement with uber to explore the future of urban air mobility which is grown-up NASA talk for sweet merciful crap flying cars but this time NASA is trusting SpaceX and Boeing with its most precious resource no.not moon money astronauts All American astronauts launching off All American soil ever since a nasa wrapped up its space shuttle program in 2011 the government agency has had to rely on other countries to get its astronauts into space and that's fine until someone has to go and tell the boss that one of America's astronauts just to abort a launch in Kazakhstan because it's Russian made rocket was on the fritz but last year's Soyuz launch aside it's fair for NASA to watch some skin in the game after all this is America's Space Agency and murki is as America does and so America done gone found a way to launch its space Patriots from the land of the free and home made rockets or as I like to call them Yankee tanks so in the famous words of the samurai pizza cats theme song who do you call when you want a pepperoni well if by pepperoni you mean a viable human transportation system to deliver astronauts to the ISS then the answer is Boeing and SpaceX speaking off let's take a look at these two suitors vying for NASA's attention it's like that episode of Beverly Hills 90210 where Dillon had to choose between Brenda and Kelly Boeing is the Brenda a long time stable partner with hundred years of history therefore NASA through this insanity Boeing's relationship with NASA goes all the way back to the Apollo days it built the first stage of the Saturn 5 rocket for the moon landing it makes sense for NASA to choose Boeing they know each other there's a connection but then there's SpaceX the blond-haired Tory Taylor of the private space industry it's only just hit the scene but it's got its eyes on NASA and since their summer fling they're making waves Kelly I mean SpaceX has the looks it has the money and just like the original Beverly Hills an honor to honor it has a weird eccentric brother who's determined to borrow under the streets of LA to build a secret underground tunnel network that's super rich but this isn't nine oh two one oh and these two companies don't have to compete for NASA's attention using monogrammed cupcakes they both have roles to play for its part Boeing is building a crew space transportation capsule known as the cst-100 Starliner according to Boeing the Starliner can fit seven passengers for missions to the ISS it will carry up to four NASA sponsored crew as well as time critical scientific research which we all know is code for new episodes of Game of Thrones the reusable spacecraft can be used up to 10 times it can land on solid ground rather than in the ocean and there are backup controls inside for the pilot as well as wireless internet not to be outdone SpaceX calls in spacecraft the dragon because Elon Musk the crew dragon has a capsule for crew with onboard controls as well as a trunk which carries unpressurized cargo and the spacecraft solar arrays the dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first privately owned spacecraft to send cargo to the ISS but it's always been designed for people - and even tourists you can kind of see the tourist angle when you read the SpaceX website which describes dragons enjoyable ride for Windows for earth views and I kid you not an escape system that feels like a ride at Disneyland but this is space not Space Mountain and NASA wants to make sure that these two companies have year that actually works first they need to conduct uncrewed test flights Boeing calls this an orbital flight test while SpaceX has dubbed its demo one from there they'll test their systems for safely aborting a launch before finally running full test flights with crew on board if all goes to plan they'll be then certified to start missions to the ISS not everything has gone well so far boeing crew member eric boe had to be replaced due to medical reasons and SpaceX has faced a number of launch delays but while Boeing's bow had to go and the crew Dragon has been flaggin things are still on track for this year SpaceX is planning an uncrewed test flight for February with Boeing slated for March after crude test flights in June NASA hopes to have its first operational mission in August fingers firmly crossed the hope is that by the end of 2019 NASA will be transporting astronauts just as Eisenhower intended an american-made Yankee tanks fresh out of Disneyland suppose that's why they build them with Windows so the astronauts can see it truly is a small world after all all right that's it for this week's edition of watch this space we'll be back in two weeks but in the meantime if you've enjoyed our broadcast please remember to hit the like button on your MOU and subscribe to get more updates as they happen I'm Claire Reilly for CNN goodnight and Godspeed I know what I'm doing I think I would know if there were too many references to Beverly Hills 90210 can we talk about how Elon Musk is essentially just Hank Scorpio from The Simpsons like down to the flamethrowers no it's fine though the Soyuz is totally okay they didn't have to plug a hole in it with their thumb that is a problem in a space program so anyway they're having a party because I think it's Kelly's dad has just gotten out of jail and they reveal the whole thing to brenda they go on a walk at the time but it was such a drama I can't believe that