JAKARTA NASA has again added a contract for launching astronauts into space with SpaceX of US$1.4 billion (Rp 20.7 trillion). The company owned by Elon Musk will launch five more astronaut missions for NASA by the end of the decade. This statement came from the US space agency on Wednesday, August 31. This number brings the company's total contracted missions for the Crew Dragon astronaut capsule to 14.
The latest collaboration for NASA and SpaceX contracts is part of the agency's efforts to ensure stable astronaut flights to the space station as Boeing, another company with a similar crew transportation contract, is still struggling to complete development, the Starliner space capsule.
"The collaboration allows NASA to maintain US capabilities without interruption 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 won NASA contracts worth billions of dollars in 2014 to develop, test, and routinely fly a space capsule system capable of sending astronauts to and from the space station. In addition, it has also sent astronauts to an orbital research laboratory that has hosted the crew of international astronauts for more than two decades.
SpaceX's reusable Crew Dragon capsule has flown five manned missions for NASA since it received crew certification in 2020. The capsule was also the first private company to launch humans into orbit and revive NASA's human spaceflight program after the US shuttle program retired in 2011.
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule, which is hit by software glitches and valve malfunctions, is targeted to fly its first crew of astronauts in February next year. But they are still looking for certification to pass the final test mission before NASA can certify the spacecraft for routine astronaut flights.
NASA initially gave each company six crew missions, but ordered three more from SpaceX in early 2022 amid the technical problems Boeing continues to experience.
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