article_snippet: A pair of docking ports will fly up later this year, followed by new crew capsules commissioned by Nasa, with astronauts aboard, in 2017.
article_snippet: Construction of Nasa began on 20 November 1998.
article_snippet: Even more spacewalks will be needed once new docking ports start arriving in June.
article_snippet: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carried them both up, with Nasa paying for the multimillion dollar tickets.
article_snippet: To save money and stop being so reliant on the Russian Space Agency, Nasa has hired Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.
article_snippet: The two contracts are worth nearly $7 billion.
article_snippet: SpaceX already is delivering cargo under a separate agreement with Nasa.