With a view to shoring up the supply of scientific cargo to the International Space Station, NASA has awarded contracts for 12 further flights to SpaceX and Northrop Grumman. This extends agreements with two of the agency's key partners in its ongoing resupply efforts, and are designed to keep the station stocked through to 2026.
The new contracts awarded to SpaceX and Northrop Grumman are worth a potential US$14 billion in total, but the final amounts will depend on the type of missions, which NASA organizes as needed.
SpaceX with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule combo, and Northrop Grumman with its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule, have supplied cargo to the International Space Station for most part of the last decade. In 2016, Sierra Nevada Corporation was brought into the fold as a third private space company to ferry goods to and from the orbiting laboratory.
NASA has now ordered a further six flights each from Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, to be carried out between now and 2026. This brings the number of missions ordered under its CRS-2 program to 32, with SpaceX taking care of 15, Northrup Grumman 14 and Sierra Nevada Corporation, now known as Sierra Space, three.
Source: NASA
Once Elon sets up asteroid mining, I'll bet it happens quickly.