SpaceX Wins $946 Million NASA Contract for Three More ISS Crew Flights

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NASA has awarded SpaceX a $946 million contract for three additional astronaut missions to the International Space Station, extending the company's crewed flights to the orbiting laboratory through 2030. The award brings SpaceX's total NASA astronaut missions under the contract to 17 and raises its total value to $5.92 billion. The contract covers astronaut and spacecraft preparations, launches, in-space mission operations, crew returns and capsule recovery, and also includes transporting supplies and keeping the spacecraft at the station as an emergency escape vehicle. NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to develop spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to the station, and SpaceX's role has grown after Boeing's Starliner encountered problems during its 2024 crewed test flight, which returned the capsule without its crew while astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams came home aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon after their planned 10-day mission stretched beyond nine months. NASA said it wants both companies operating crew flights so a technical problem or accident involving one provider does not interrupt US access to the station.

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SpaceX's growing NASA crew role, aided by Boeing Starliner's 2024 test-flight problems, cements a rival's advantage in commercial crew.

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