NASA Expands SpaceX Contract with Six Additional ISS Missions

NASA has announced its intention to add six post-certification missions (PCMs) to SpaceX's commercial crew contract, aiming to maintain uninterrupted access to the International Space Station (ISS). This decision comes as Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft has yet to be certified for crewed flights.

In a procurement filing dated May 18, NASA stated that the additional missions are necessary due to "recently shortened ISS mission durations, technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing, the allocation of missions between Boeing and SpaceX, NASA's projections for when an alternative CTS may become available, and the ongoing technical challenges of maintaining a reliable CTS capability for crewed flights to ISS."

Previously, in 2022, NASA modified SpaceX's commercial crew contract by adding five missions for $1.4 billion, extending the contract through the Crew-14 mission. The current Crew-12 mission is presently at the ISS.

Boeing's Starliner program has faced multiple delays. In November 2025, NASA and Boeing agreed to modify their commercial crew contract, reducing the number of missions from six to four, with options for two more. The uncrewed Starliner-1 mission, initially anticipated for this year, was not listed in NASA's recent manifest for crew and cargo missions to the ISS.

NASA had considered extending crew rotation missions from six to eight months to reduce the number of missions required. However, the agency decided to retain six-month ISS missions to maximize station utilization in its final years.

The addition of six missions to SpaceX's contract would cover three years of ISS operations at a rate of one mission every six months. With the current contract running through Crew-14, flying through fall 2027, this extension would provide coverage through late 2030, aligning with the ISS's planned retirement schedule.