NASA Awards SpaceX $1.4B for Five More Missions

SpaceX will now have a total of 14 missions it is helping NASA with, after the agency announced an additional award on Wednesday.

NASA awarded SpaceX more than $1.4 billion for five additional crewed missions to the International Space Station, which will modify its existing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract. The additional missions will allow NASA to “maintain an uninterrupted U.S. capability for human access to the space station until 2030, with two unique commercial crew industry partners.” In December 2021, NASA announced the extension of the International Space Station through 2030, which necessitates additional crewed missions. 

NASA stated that for the Crew-10, Crew-11, Crew-12, Crew-13, and Crew-14 flights, this is a firm fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract modification, which includes “ground, launch, in-orbit, return and recovery operations, cargo transportation for each mission and a lifeboat capability while docked to the International Space Station.” As a result, SpaceX’s total contract value is more than $4.92 billion. 

In June, NASA issued a notice of intent to purchase additional missions. According to the agency, this modification does not prevent it from seeking additional contraction modifications for future missions if necessary. 

Previously, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 as part of a public-private partnership for its Commercial Crew Program, pursuant to the providers’ space transportation system being certified by NASA for meeting the agency’s requirements before any crewed missions occur. SpaceX was certified in November 2020. While SpaceX has already had several missions, Boeing’s Starliner’s first crewed mission is set to occur in February 2023.

SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-4 mission is currently in orbit at the space station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket can transport up to four astronauts and cargo to the station.