Boeing's commercial spacecraft officially named Starliner

Boeing's commercial spacecraft CST-100, currently under development as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program to provide transportation to and from the International Space Station, has officially been named Starliner, the company said.

Boeing made the announcement late Friday during a grand opening of the company's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, where the Starliner will be assembled, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Starliner is scheduled to take its first crewed spaceflight by the end of 2017, effectively resuming the US-based flights to space," Boeing said.

NASA had used the facility as a space shuttle processing hangar.

Last year, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and California-based SpaceX to each develop systems that will transport astronauts to the International Space Station from the US.