NASA has added $946 million to SpaceX’s commercial crew contract for three further Crew Dragon missions to the International Space Station, helping secure astronaut access while Boeing’s Starliner programme remains uncertain. The deal covers Crew-15 through Crew-17 and related launch, support, cargo, recovery and emergency-lifeboat services, raising SpaceX’s contract value to $5.92 billion.

The missions are currently scheduled for 2027 and 2028, with work continuing through 2030, around the planned retirement of the ISS. Although SpaceX intends eventually to replace Dragon and Falcon 9 with Starship, Starliner has struggled after test failures and a crewed mission that returned without its astronauts, leaving Crew Dragon potentially responsible for NASA’s final ISS crews and highlighting concerns about future access to low Earth orbit.