NASA has expanded its partnership with SpaceX by awarding the Elon Musk-led aerospace company five additional cargo missions to the International Space Station.
The additional contract was signed in late December, just before Christmas, but was not announced at the time. The value of the contract was also not disclosed but industry experts estimate the resupply missions to be worth around $700 million.
The five resupply missions add to the 15 previous assigned missions under SpaceX's belt. The missions are part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract which was first signed in 2008.
Meanwhile, the other company participating in CRS, Virginia-based Orbital ATK, has received 10 spaceflights but did not get the end-year orders.
Cheryl Warner, spokesperson for NASA, did not directly address whether the new contracts were rivaled.
"We order resupply flights from our commercial providers via the contract modification process based on the mission needs to resupply the international space station," said Warner.
Orbital ATK's spokesperson Vicki Cox said the company is ready to support additional cargo based on NASA's specifications and future requirements.
Orbital ATK, Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX all signed separate CRS contracts eight years ago. Experts said the contracts have proved resistant to outside analysis as both NASA and suppliers implored commercial sensitivity in declining to disclose details.
The CRS was originally designed as a service arrangement where NASA pays for an agreed-to amount of supplies launched to the ISS, said Stephanie Schierholz, another spokesperson for NASA.
Now, the terms and conditions for CRS have evolved to take into account the number of launchers involved, not just the kilograms, she said. For instance, Orbital ATK included an 11th launch, which was subsequently spread out over other missions.
SpaceX's first CRS contract was worth $1.6 billion. It was to carry 20,000 kilograms (about 44,000 pounds) of supplies to the ISS. It was estimated that 12 launches of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and its Dragon cargo capsule would cover this weight.
In January, NASA contracted SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Nevada's Sierra Nevada Corp. for a CRS-2 contract that would cover resupply missions between 2019 and 2024.
The three companies were promised six missions each under the CRS-2 contract. Additionally, NASA said Orbital ATK and SpaceX had already delivered 16,000 kilograms (about 35,000 pounds) of cargo in total.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson | Flickr
