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The
latest boost to SpaceX's NASA contract is part of the agency's
effort to ensure a steady run of astronaut flights to the space
station as Boeing, the other company with a similar crew
transportation contract, has struggled to complete development
of its Starliner space capsule.
The 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 agency
said in a statement.
SpaceX and Boeing each won multibillion dollar NASA contracts in
2014 to develop, test and routinely fly space capsule systems
capable of sending astronauts to and from the space station, an
orbital research lab that has housed international crews of
astronauts for over two decades.
SpaceX's reusable Crew Dragon capsule has flown five crewed
missions for NASA since it was crew-certified in 2020, when it
became the first private company to launch humans into orbit and
revived NASA's human spaceflight program after the U.S. shuttle
program retired in 2011.
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule, beset by software glitches
and valve malfunctions, aims to fly its first crew of astronauts
in February next year, looking to pass a final test mission
before NASA can certify the spacecraft for routine astronaut
flights.
NASA initially awarded each company six crew missions, but
ordered three more from SpaceX in early 2022 amid Boeing's
technical woes.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; editing by Richard Pullin)
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