With a view to shoring up the provide of scientific cargo to the International Space Station, NASA has awarded contracts for 12 additional flights to SpaceX and Northrup Grumman. This extends agreements with two of the company’s key companions in its ongoing resupply efforts, and are designed to maintain the station stocked by way of to 2026.

The new contracts awarded to SpaceX and Northrup Grumman are price a possible US$14 billion in complete, however the remaining quantities will rely upon the kind of missions, which NASA organizes as wanted.

SpaceX with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule combo, and Northrup Grumman with its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule, have provided cargo to the International Space Station for most a part of the final decade. In 2016, Sierra Nevada Corporation was introduced into the fold as a 3rd non-public house firm to ferry items to and from the orbiting laboratory.

NASA has now ordered an extra six flights every from Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, to be carried out between now and 2026. This brings the variety of missions ordered below its CRS-2 program to 32, with SpaceX caring for 15, Northrup Grumman 14 and Sierra Nevada Corporation, now often known as Sierra Space, three.

Source: NASA