New York, Dhu-AlQa'dah 16, 1437, Aug 19, 2016, SPA -- Two NASA astronauts completed a six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday to install a parking spot for upcoming commercial space taxis, which will end U.S. reliance on Russia for rides to the orbiting outpost, Reuters reported. Station commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Kate Rubins floated outside the station's airlock and headed toward the berthing slip once used by NASA's now-retired space shuttles, a NASA TV broadcast showed. During Friday's spacewalk, Williams and Rubins attached an adapter onto the shuttle's docking port that will allow commercial space taxis under development by Space Exploration Technologies and Boeing to park at the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. "It's a gateway to a new era in commercial space," said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias. California-based SpaceX, owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, plans to begin test flights of its new passenger Dragon capsule to the station in 2017. Boeing's debut flight of its CST-100 Starliner capsule is expected in 2018. NASA had hoped to have the first of two new docking ports installed last year, but the equipment was destroyed during a SpaceX cargo ship launch accident in June 2015. A replacement docking port is under construction and expected to be delivered to the station in early 2018. -- SPA 00:57 LOCAL TIME 21:57 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w