NASA Announces Human Space Flight Will Return to the United States in 2017

NASA has released a teaser video for the major announcement that they will resume human space flight in the United States. The announcement will be made live on NASA TV at 4:00pm EDT on Tuesday September 16th, 2014. Currently NASA relies on the Russian Federal Space Agency’s Soyuz rockets and capsules to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), but it is an expensive and tense relationship. On April 29th, 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted that due to sanctions placed on his country by the United States, NASA should consider using a trampoline to send its astronauts to the ISS.

It appears from NASA’s video, which was posted on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program blog, that the goal will be met by working with one of the commercial partners NASA already uses for satellite and cargo launches. The Commercial Crew Program intends to send an American astronaut to the ISS in 2017.