WASHINGTON — NASA has extended three contracts with companies to continue transporting cargo to and from the International Space Station until the end of the station’s life, expected in 2030.

In public procurement files On November 8, NASA said it plans to extend existing Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contracts with Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space and SpaceX, which were set to expire at the end of 2026 until the end of 2030. Current plans for NASA plans to withdraw. the ISS in 2030.

All three companies were awarded CRS-2 contracts in 2016, and NASA announced in March 2023 its intention to extend the contracts. “There are no other CRS-2 certified visit vehicles in the current market to provide cargo resupply to the ISS,” NASA said in a document justifying the extension of the three contracts. “Extending existing contracts is the most effective way to ensure the continued provision of these services over the extended duration of the ISS.”

NASA did, as part of the March 2023 announcement, request information from companies that believed they could transport cargo to the station. The agency said it received three responses, but concluded that none of the companies could meet its requirements.

One answer came from Gravitics, a company developing modules for future commercial space stations, including one called StarMax. “The response does not provide a description of an end-to-end cargo service capable of reaching, attaching and departing the ISS, but suggests that a next-generation launch vehicle could bring it to Earth orbit low,” says the NASA document on StarMax. Further details about its concept are redacted in the public document.

A second response came from The Exploration Company, a European startup developing cargo return spacecraft. NASA noted that the company is not considered a “U.S. commercial supplier” under federal law. “The Munich, Germany-based company, founded 20 months ago, is not in compliance with this and other CRS-2 contract restrictions regarding certain foreign purchases and export controls,” NASA said. Other details about his proposal are redacted.

A third response came from GEPA Logistics, which NASA described as a British company that handles land, sea and air cargo transportation, but which appears to have no experience in space transportation. “The GEPA Logistics capabilities statement did not contain any description of a spaceflight capability that would provide end-to-end cargo services with low Earth orbit capability to the ISS,” NASA said.

Although all three companies were rejected, one of them could still reach the ISS by other means. The European Space Agency selected The Exploration Company, alongside Thales Alenia Space, for study contracts in May for this agency’s own commercial freight program. The goal of this effort is to have at least one company fly a demonstration mission to the ISS by 2028.

The CRS-2 contracts have a combined value not expected to exceed $14 billion, and NASA said in its justification that extending the contracts through 2030 would not cause them to reach that limit, although it redacted the funding spent to date on these contracts. According to federal procurement databases, NASA has committed $2.7 billion to date to Northrop Grumman, $1.4 billion to Sierra Space and $2.8 billion to SpaceX, for a total of $6.9 billion.

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