LIVE: NASA Announces Boeing, SpaceX As Winners Of Commercial Crew Shuttling Contracts

In a few years, for the first time in history, we will have a way for civilians to go into space. At 4 p.m. ET today, NASA announced the winners of the contract for its Commercial Crew program, in a teleconference with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders, and Astronaut and former ISS Expedition crew member Mike Fincke.

Boeing will receive a contract for $4.2 billion for development of its CST-100 capsule, and SpaceX will receive a contract for $2.6 billion for Dragon 2.

"Thanks to the leadership of President Obama and the hard work of our NASA and industry teams, today we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation's sole reliance on Russia by 2017," Bolden wrote in a blog post following the announcement. " Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry also will allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission - sending humans to Mars."

These contracts are not only lucrative but historic, as Boeing and SpaceX will play a pivotal role in the future of manned space travel, by establishing what will essentially be a taxi service to and from low-Earth orbit and eliminating America's reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets.

This last factor is especially important in light of escalating tensions between the US and Russia over the power struggle in the Ukraine.

Boeing and SpaceX will not only provide transportation for astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but will, in principle, be free to sell a ride to low-Earth orbit to anyone willing to pay for it.

These awards are the culmination of a race that began in 2010, when NASA began awarding funding to private companies to develop a capsule capable of carrying astronauts into orbit and back. Unlike previous NASA programs, in which NASA handled all of the work and the funding, the Commercial Crew program entails a partnership between government and industry, in which NASA set the final safety and functionality requirements for the transportation system, but left it to the companies themselves to figure out the best way to meet those requirements.