By Loukia Papadopoulos Interesting Engineering 3/27/2022
Russia was threatening to drop out, so the West had to step up to the plate.
Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin made headlines around the world when he stated that the U.S. would have to use “broomsticks” to fly into space since Russia would no longer make its rocket engines available to the U.S. companies. And although NASA Administrator Bill Nelson played down the comments at the time, there is no doubt that traveling to space may soon become more complicated.
That's why NASA is planning ahead. According to a statement by the space agency released on Friday, 12 additional missions have been ordered under its Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) contracts to ensure continuous science and cargo delivery for the agency and its international partners to the International Space Station.
New missions ordered
The new missions would go to Northrop Grumman and SpaceX (six each) and will provide resupply services to the station through 2026. This is not the first time the space agency turns to American companies to meet its space needs.
More:
https://interestingengineering.com/spacex-northrop-grumman-iss-2026
