Boeing bids to replace Russia flying astronauts to space station for Nasa

Nasa’s effort to resume flying American astronauts on American spacecraft — something that hasn’t happened since the Space Shuttle programme ended in 2011 — faces a major test this weekend.

Over the past decade, a lot of attention has been paid to billionaire space entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. His company, SpaceX, has been launching payloads into low Earth orbit for years, replete with balletic booster landings and even a space going Tesla Roadster.