SpaceX Secures Additional 1.3 Trillion Won Contract from NASA

[Financial News]  

Elon Musk's SpaceX has extended its existing contract with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) while securing an additional contract to send spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030. Under the agreement, SpaceX will send its four-person Dragon spacecraft to the ISS three times, receiving an additional $946 million (approximately 1.3 trillion won).
NASA said in a statement on the 18th (local time) that a total of 17 spacecraft launches will take place under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract.
In addition to SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, Boeing's CST-100 Starliner is also taking part in NASA's ISS program. The company plans to send an uncrewed spacecraft within the next few months and begin launching crewed spacecraft in the third quarter of next year.
NASA said SpaceX will provide "ground operations, launch and orbital insertion, return and recovery operations, cargo transport for each mission, and lifeboat services while docked with the ISS."
SpaceX successfully completed the largest corporate initial public offering (IPO) ever in June. NASA and the Department of Defense are the prime contractors for its core spacecraft-launch business. Including this contract, SpaceX will have earned a total of $5.92 billion (approximately 8.2 trillion won) from NASA.
Meanwhile, SpaceX's NASA Crew-13 launch is scheduled for next month, while Crew-14 is targeted for launch next spring. Beyond NASA missions, SpaceX is expected to phase out the Dragon program just six years after beginning crewed flights. Future launches will rely primarily on the Starship rocket, which is currently under development.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter