NASA Adds Three SpaceX Crew Flights in $946 Million Deal

NASA has awarded SpaceX a $946 million contract to fly three additional astronaut missions to the International Space Station, extending the company's crewed flights to the orbiting laboratory through 2030.

The new order raises the total number of NASA astronaut flights under the arrangement to 17 and lifts the contract's overall value to $5.92 billion.

The agreement covers a broad set of responsibilities, including preparing astronauts and spacecraft on the ground, launching them, operating the mission while in orbit, returning the crew safely and recovering the capsule. It also provides for carrying supplies and keeping the spacecraft docked at the station to serve as an emergency escape vehicle.

NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to develop spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the station. The aim was to restore a regular domestic launch capability after the space shuttle was retired, ending years of dependence on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

SpaceX's system was approved for astronaut flights in November 2020. Since then, the company has become NASA's primary provider for rotating crews at the station, using its Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket to carry up to four astronauts at a time, along with supplies.

Boeing's Starliner, meanwhile, encountered problems during its 2024 crewed test flight. NASA opted to return the capsule without its crew and brought astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home aboard a SpaceX Dragon after what was planned as a 10-day mission stretched into a stay of more than nine months.

NASA wants both SpaceX and Boeing conducting crew flights so that an accident or technical issue affecting one company does not cut off U.S. astronaut access to the station.