As expected, NASA has ordered 5 extra astronaut missions from SpaceX in a brand new $1.44 billion contract, elevating the overall variety of Crew Dragon launches to 14. It’s designed to make sure a gentle stream of crew members to the International Space Station (ISS), as SpaceX rival Boeing struggles to get its personal Starliner crew system launch-ready. 

The newest award “allows NASA to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. capability for human access to the space station until 2030, with two unique commercial crew industry partners,” the house company mentioned in a press launch. It brings the overall Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with SpaceX to $4.93 billion. 

SpaceX was licensed for crew transportation in November 2020, launching its newest Crew-4 mission on April 27, 2022. Earlier this 12 months, NASA announced that it could order three further missions for $900 million, upping its unique $2.6 billion contract to $3.49 billion. 

All of that is to the detriment of Boeing, which has suffered quite a few delays with its Starliner capsule that is appropriate with ULA’s Atlas V and different rockets. Following a protracted delay on account of valve points, the newest unmanned take a look at flight launched on May nineteenth this 12 months, with the capsule returning to Earth six days later. The first crewed flight was initially deliberate for 2017, however nonetheless hasn’t launched. Boeing and NASA are actually targeting early 2023 for the primary mission carrying astronauts.