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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency hosts a media briefing highlighting the four companies selected for the second round of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) efforts. From left, are Michael Braukus, NASA Public Affairs specialist; Phil McAlister, acting director of Commercial Spaceflight Development at NASA Headquarters; Ed Mango, program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program at Kennedy; Rob Meyerson, program manager of Blue Origin; Mark Sirangelo, program manager of Sierra Nevada; Garrett Reisman, program manager of SpaceX; and John Elbon, program manager of The Boeing Company. NASA awarded $269.3 million to these companies to accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities and reduce the gap in American human spaceflight capability. Through this activity, NASA also may be able to spur economic growth as potential new space markets are created. Once developed, crew transportation capabilities could become available to commercial and government customers. Photo credit: NASA_Jim Grossmann