Mary-Louise Hoffman
NASA has indicated its intent to award SpaceX a contract modification to fly an additional five crewed missions as the agency seeks to ensure the availability of human transportation services to the International Space Station.
The agency said Wednesday that SpaceX, which is currently the only company that secured certification under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability program, is scheduled to ferry astronauts on a sixth rotational mission in the spring of 2023.
Elon Musk’s space venture and Boeing were awarded CCtCap contracts worth up to $6.8 billion combined in September 2014.
Boeing completed its first uncrewed flight test of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory May 25, moving a step closer to receiving certification as a flight services provider for the CCtCap program.
“Our goal has always been to have multiple providers for crewed transportation to the space station,” said Phil McAllister, director, commercial space at NASA.
“SpaceX has been reliably flying two NASA crewed missions per year, and now we must backfill those flights to help safely meet the agency’s long-term needs.”
The agency ordered three additional post-certification flights from SpaceX in late February.
