NASA expects to purchase five additional SpaceX crewed missions to the International Space Station.
The five-flight contract is in addition to a $3.5 billion contract SpaceX received in February for three additional astronaut trips using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule: Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9. NASA stated at the time that it might order additional flights from SpaceX.
The agency announced a "sole-source modification" to its contract with SpaceX, the only American system currently transporting NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. An agency blog post did not reveal the projected value of the updated contract.
Crew-4 is currently in space, Crew-5 is set to launch in September, and Crew-6 is set to launch in spring 2023. If the newly bought five flights are flown in the same order as Crew-9, the contract change will get SpaceX to Crew-14.
While SpaceX is now the sole business transporting men to space for NASA, the agency has stated that Boeing's Starliner capsule will be ready in the near future.
During an uncrewed test flight to the ISS that finished on May 25, Starliner achieved its key goals.
"The recent success of Boeing's uncrewed flight test is helping to solidify NASA's long-term goals," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said in the agency statement. "It's critical we complete Starliner's development without undue schedule pressure while working to position both Boeing and SpaceX for sustainable operations in the years ahead."
Space station operations have been approved until the end of 2024. NASA wants to keep the orbiting lab operational until at least 2030, but this would require approval from the program's other major partners, including Russia.
Given the disintegration of many of the country's existing space alliances as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian clearance may be difficult to obtain.
Current space station rotation rates need crewed spacecraft from all nations flying up and down approximately four times per year for basic station needs such as maintenance and science.
However, NASA does not bear the entire load. Russia supplies cosmonauts via its Soyuz spacecraft, which NASA still utilizes for astronauts on occasion; for example, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth on a Soyuz on March 30.
NASA regards SpaceX and Boeing as critical components in its astronaut transportation needs in the coming years, awarding contracts to both businesses in 2014.
NASA said that it may need to deploy more SpaceX flights as early as 2026. More Dragon flights, which might fly even after the Starliner is ready, provide vital redundancy, according to agency officials.
