Republic World By Harsh Vardhan 12/6/2021
NASA has offered Elon Musk-owned SpaceX three additional crew flights to the International Space Station (ISS) using the latter's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
NASA has offered Elon Musk-owned SpaceX three additional crew flights to the International Space Station (ISS) using the latter's Crew Dragon spacecraft. In a blog released last week, NASA clarified that currently, SpaceX is the only American company that could provide safe launch systems for uninterrupted access to space. The US space agency informed that it took the decision after a thorough review of the near-term certified capabilities and responses from several companies.
SpaceX was able to bag the three extra flights under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capabilities (CCtCap) contract that it won along with Boeing in 2014 from NASA. The contract was basically to promote a public-private partnership under NASA's Commercial Crew Program where NASA would certify a company's transportation system given it meets the requirements prior to flying missions with astronauts.
"After years of development, commercial crew systems have achieved or are nearing operational readiness for regular crewed missions, including providing a lifeboat capability, to the space station," NASA said in its blog.
More:
https://www.republicworld.com/technology-news/science/elon-musks-spacex-the-only-space-company-capable-of-safe-trips-to-iss-nasa.html
