SpaceX wins 2nd NASA contract to take astronauts to ISS

The Commercial Crew Program aims to restore USA human spaceflight launch capability, which was lost when the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011.

Restoring human spaceflight launch capabilities for the U.S. is a major effort being managed by NASA-direct flights from Florida’s Space Coast to the International Space Station (ISS) will enable USA crews to devote more of their valuable time to research-these projects are involved in formulating the necessary steps for deep space missions, including a United States journey mission to Mars.

NASA took another important step Friday in returning us astronaut launches from USA soil with the order of a second post-certification mission from commercial provider SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. NASA is working with both companies to reach their goals. But it lost out to SpaceX and Boeing, and so it then turned its attention to another contract – one to fly cargo and supplies to the station. That timeline would put astronauts on top of the rocket while fuel is loaded, a potentially hazardous operation. Reuter said NASA would be spending approximately $32 million, implying SpaceX would spend more than $300 million on the mission.

SpaceX has not said how much it will spend on Red Dragon, but it views sending the six-ton spacecraft to the Martian surface as a precursor to its plans to land humans on the surface in the 2020s-and to eventually colonize the planet.

The flight isn’t set to happen until late 2017. The Dragon Capsule will be fired by SpaceX into the orbit using the company’s Falcon 9 booster. Watch the test here. But there’s more to SpaceX than meets the eye. Those missions fly faster and subject the rocket stage to more intense heating when it returns to Earth.

CEO Elon Musk in May described that stage as having suffered “max damage”.

First, the Dream Chaser will undergo ground testing.

SpaceX has landed five boosters since December, two on land and three at sea. This means that unless SpaceX or Boeing are ready with their flagship capsules by then, USA presence on the space station would be directly impacted – at least temporarily.

To get to this point, however, has been a long road for its manufacturer, the Sierra Nevada Corp.

NASA’s had beforehand bestowed SpaceX an astronaut launch in its Commercial Crew Transportation Contract in November. Two of these spacecraft are scheduled for qualification testing while the other two are meant to be used for flight testing next year. The final determination of whether Boeing or SpaceX will conduct the first commercial flight to the station has yet to be made.