NASA is set to announce on Aug. 3 the first batch of astronauts who will travel to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program, Politico reported Friday.The space agency expects the program’s maiden mission to take place sometime in 2020.
Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts worth up to $6.8 billion combined in September 2014 to ferry astronauts to and from the space station with the CST-100 and Dragon spacecraft.
Each contractor received four additional ISS transport missions in January of last year.
The Aug. 3 mission will also mark Americans’ first trip to space from U.S. ground since the Space Shuttle program concluded seven years ago.
