Elon Musk's SpaceX Wins $1.4B NASA Contract for 5 More ISS Launches
The extra flights mean SpaceX will handle 14 missions.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 begins its ascension in 2020.
NASA awarded five more missions to Elon Musk's SpaceX, the US space agency said Wednesday. The company's 14 missions will see it bring astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Commercial Crew program.
It builds on a contract NASA awarded to SpaceX in 2014, which also allowed Boeing to transport astronauts to the space station. SpaceX was certified for crew transportation after its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule carried astronauts to the ISS in November 2020.
SpaceX's most recent NASA mission was Crew-4, which launched in April and is still in orbit. The modified contract awards the Crew-10, Crew-11, Crew-12, Crew-13, and Crew-14 flights to Musk's aerospace company as well, running until 2030, when NASA plans to retire the ISS.
The Commercial Crew program is the spacefaring equivalent of chartering a flight, in that NASA astronauts take a ride (and transport cargo) in a private company's vehicle. Boeing has been awarded six missions to fly astronauts to the ISS under the program, but its Starliner flights only completed their first full test in May.
