spacetoday.net: Boeing plans to build commercial capsules at KSC

Boeing plans to build commercial capsules at KSC

Posted: Tue, Nov 1, 2011, 6:39 AM ET (1039 GMT)
Boeing CST-100 illustration

Boeing and NASA announced Monday plans by the aerospace company to build its commercial crewed spacecraft in a former shuttle hangar at the Kennedy Space Center. Boeing will establish its Commercial Crew Program Office, which may eventually include manufacturing facilities, at KSC's Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3), a facility previously used to maintain shuttles between flights. Boeing said that if it is funded to develop its CST-100 spacecraft, it will assemble and test the spacecraft in that facility, employing up to 550 people by 2015. The announcement was welcomed by Florida business and political officials, who are dealing with the loss of thousands of jobs with the retirement of the shuttle.