Sep 17, 2014 10:54 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

NASA has awarded Boeing and SpaceX with contracts worth a combined $6.8 billion to fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

According to the Los Angeles Times, NASA decided against choosing winged vehicles to fly the astronauts to the ISS, but instead elected for capsules that would be situated on the end of a rocket. Like the unmanned resupply missions SpaceX has been running for NASA, the rocket would arrive at the ISS and then return to Earth, crashing into the water.

"From day one, the Obama Administration made clear that the greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on other nations to get into space," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to a news release. "Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, the hard work of our NASA and industry teams, and support from Congress, 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.

"Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry will also allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission - sending humans to Mars."

SpaceX's contract is worth $2.6 billion and Boeing's is worth $4.2 billion, Reuters reported. SpaceX is already under contract with NASA to perform unmanned resupply missions to the ISS. Elon Musk's team has designed his rockets to land back on Earth so they may be reused, thus saving heaps of money.

These "space taxi" contracts, as Bolden said, are also part of an effort to lessen NASA's reliance on Russia, whose space agency has been handling the shuttling of astronauts to and from the ISS. Due to governmental tensions between the two nations, President Obama has wanted to cut ties wherever possible.

"We are excited to see our industry partners close in on operational flights to the International Space Station, an extraordinary feat industry and the NASA family began just four years ago," Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said at the news event. "This space agency has long been a technology innovator, and now we also can say we are an American business innovator, spurring job creation and opening up new markets to the private sector. The agency and our partners have many important steps to finish, but we have shown we can do the tough work required and excel in ways few would dare to hope."

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