NASA has once more tapped SpaceX for five additional astronaut missions to the International Space Station under a fresh and hefty $1.4-billion agreement that modifies a current agreement between the two parties.
The agreement, which will have NASA utilize SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets for the ISS missions, allows the U.S. space agency to continue uninterrupted capability for human access to the space station until 2030, NASA officials noted on the NASA website.
The deal will cover missions from Crew-10 to Crew-14, which will comprise 20 spacecraft seats in total. SpaceX's Crew-5 is slated to launch in early October, and Crew-4 is at the ISS at this moment.
While NASA has contracted Boeing's Starliner capsule to launch people to space very soon, SpaceX is the only aerospace company certified to launch operational crewed missions for NASA.
New Deal Adds to Current Three-Mission Pact Between NASA, SpaceX
SpaceX also has three existing astronaut flight deals of astronaut flights from that were sealed in December, which was part of a sole-source modification to its Commercial Crew Transportation Capabilities (CCtCap) contract, a deal first awarded to SpaceX in 2014.
At the time, HASA officials said SpaceX's crew transportation system is the only one certified by NASA to meet the space agency's requirements to bring crew members to the ISS and to keep NASA's obligations to its international partners within the set timeframe.
"SpaceX's crew transportation system is the only one certified to meet NASA's safety requirements to transport crew to the space station, and to maintain the agency's obligation to its international partners in the needed timeframe," agency officials said at the time.
The CCtCap deal is now valued at $4.9 billion, NASA officials revealed on Wednesday.
NASA seeks to launch astronaut missions to the ISS until 2030 after U.S. President Joe Biden approved extending NASA's participation in the ISS for six more years after its current participation agreement ends in 2024.
The U.S.'s chief ISS partner Russia, however, has expressed its intention to withdraw from the ISS after 2024 to instead launch its own orbital space station, which, however, would not be ready until 2028.
There is no official word yet on how NASA and its remaining ISS partners would fill in the operational void Russia would leave, such as boosting the ISS at scheduled periods to maintain the orbital station's correct altitude above Earth.
SpaceX to Launch 100 Missions in 2023
Meanwhile, in a tweet Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company is set to launch around 100 missions next year. It has launched a total of 39 missions this year.
Yeah, aiming for up to 100 flights next year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2022
A majority if not all of these forthcoming missions will likely bring large batches of satellites for the company's Starlink's broadband satellite-based Internet service. In fact, this year 25 of the 39 total SpaceX launches this year have been dedicated to Starlink, which has around 50 satellites orbiting at a time.
All Starlink missions to date have launched atop SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, but that could change next year. The company is working on getting its next-generation spaceflight system, a huge rocket-spaceship combo known as Starship, up and running in the near future.
