The agency said Wednesday it had ordered six additional supply shipments from the company under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) contract. NASA has also commissioned six more missions with pioneering aerospace Northrop Grumman, another major ISS supply provider. NASA awarded supply contracts to both SpaceX and Northrop in 2016 for services until 2024. Sierra Nevada Corporation was the third selected supplier. CRS-2 guaranteed at least six missions for each supplier, with NASA choosing to order additional missions as needed. The maximum possible value of all three contracts is $ 14 billion, although the final cost for NASA will depend on the number of orders, the agency said. This order raises the total number of CRS-2 shipments to 32, with 14 shipments to Northrop, 15 to SpaceX and three to Sierra. So far, SpaceX is very familiar with these flights. The company completed 20 supply missions under a previous CRS contract, CRS-1. According to the NASA inspector general, the total payment to SpaceX for these missions was $ 3.04 billion, or about $ 152 million per mission. SpaceX is using its Dragon cargo spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to supply the ISS with supplies, and has been doing so since its first refueling mission to the station in 2012. After leaving Earth, the Dragon made an appointment with the ISS and autonomously docked at the station. SpaceX also provides crew missions to the ISS with the Crew Dragon capsule.
