The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Monday announced that it has officially awarded SpaceX three additional crew flights to the International Space Station (ISS) under its Commercial Crew Transportation Capabilities (CCtCap) contract.
The announcement comes almost three months after the agency issued a notice of intent to procure more ISS flights from SpaceX in December 2021.
Counting the three additional flights, the number of commercial crew flights solicited as part of SpaceX’s NASA contract has now gone up to nine. Elon Musk’s rocket company has launched the Crew-1, Crew-2, and (more recently) Crew-3 missions for the agency.
The CCtCap modification will allow NASA “to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. capability for human access to the space station,” said the agency.
Under the agreement, NASA has tacked on a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification for the Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 missions to its CCtCap contract with SpaceX. The period of performance runs through March 31, 2028.
With this recent addition, SpaceX’s contract with NASA for commercial crew flights is now valued at a whopping $3,490,872,904 USD. The current sole-source modification also does not bar NASA from seeking additional contract modifications and engaging SpaceX for even more ISS flights in the future.
“Under CCtCap, NASA certifies that a provider’s space transportation system meets the agency’s requirements prior to flying missions with astronauts,” explains NASA. “SpaceX was certified by NASA for crew transportation in November 2020, and currently its third crew rotation mission for the agency is in orbit.”
For crew transportation flights to the ISS, “SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket transport up to four astronauts along with critical cargo to the space station.”
In April of last year, NASA also picked SpaceX to send the next two American astronauts to the surface of the moon, in a contract worth $2.89 billion USD for the U.S.’s first lunar landing since 1972.
