This artist's illustration depicts a Boeing CST-100 spacecraft approaching a private inflatable space station complex designed by Bigelow Aerospace.
An artist's rendering of Boeing's crew-carrying CST-100 space capsule.
A Boeing CST-100 spacecraft is shown atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in this artist's illustration. The CST-100 is a capsule-based vehicle designed to carry seven astronauts into low-Earth orbit on trips to the International Space Station or other orbital destination.
Boeing is testing a 12-by-14 inch aluminum model of its CST-100 space capsule in a wind tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center. The company has said it hopes the CST-100 will be flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station by 2015.
A side view of the model CST-100 space capsule Boeing is subjecting to wind-tunnel tests.
A front view of an aluminum model of Boeing's CST-100 crew-carrying space capsule. The company is putting the model through wind-tunnel tests to gauge the spaceship's structural integrity.
Boeing engineers look over a model of the company's CST-100 space capsule during wind-tunnel tests at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.
Boeing's CST-100 space capsule falls to Earth in a successful parachute drop test held April 3, 2012, at the Delamar Dry Lake Bed near Alamo, Nev.
A model of Boeing's CST-100 space capsule shows the crew-carrying craft's interior design. The CST-100, which can carry up to seven astronauts, could fly its first manned mission by 2015 or 2016, Boeing officials have said.
