Two may team in space

The Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. may work as a team in a competition to develop NASA's project to send astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond, Northrop Grumman officials said this month.

The two companies hope to design the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which will transport manned crews beyond low-Earth orbit and back again. The vehicle is one of the building blocks of NASA's Constellation Project enabling manned exploration of the solar system.

Competition to develop the vehicle is expected to begin in 2005, with test flights in 2008, and an Earth orbit flight by 2014. NASA plans to send a crew to the moon by 2020.