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According to Tech Times, NASA has "placed another mission order with SpaceX to facilitate the delivery of American astronauts to the ISS."
According to NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Kathy Lueders, the latest crew rotation mission from SpaceX combined with the two mission orders from Boeing are designed to ensure that NASA will have reliable access to the ISS aboard American spacecraft.
She added that the systems are also meant to provide lifeboat service to the space station's crew for up to seven months.
Boeing received its two spaceflight orders from NASA back in May and December 2015, while SpaceX received its first order back in November that same year. Both space companies are now preparing to fulfill their mission orders for the space agency, which includes the development and testing of necessary technologies.
According to NASA, it will announce which of the two companies will be the one to fly first post-certification mission to the ISS on a later date. The CCtCap contracts the space agency has with SpaceX and Boeing includes up to six potential space missions for each company.
[...] SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said they have made great progress with their Crew Dragon spacecraft as well as with the qualification of their docking adapter and the initial testing of their pressure vessel qualification unit.
She said that they appreciate the trust that NASA is giving their company with the granting of the second crew delivery mission order and that they are looking forward to sending astronauts from U.S. soil in 2017.
As of the moment, SpaceX is developing four Crew Dragon capsules at its manufacturing center in Hawthorne, California. Two of these spacecraft are scheduled for qualification testing while the other two are meant to be used for flight testing next year.
SpaceX has also begun modifying its Launch Pad 39A located in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch pad is expected to be used for crew delivery missions to the ISS in the future.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 02 2016, @07:47PM
I have a question: now that the ISS is essentially complete, and the limited space shuttles are gone, what would it cost to attach a few boosters to it and raise it by a few hundred km so it's no longer in need of yearly altitude boosts?
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday August 02 2016, @08:19PM
Ion engines could help keep it up. Emdrive would be a better option if it is ever found to work, since it is propellantless.
Boosting it up could spell trouble for actually keeping humans on-board long term if there are radiation concerns, but I have not looked up those numbers.
Last time I checked Russia is still planning to detach its modules [spacenews.com] from the ISS by 2024 to form the basis of a new Russian station. I believe China has similar ambitions.
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(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday August 03 2016, @07:08AM
ISS already has been boosted since the Shuttle was retired. Most of it is done using spare fuel from arriving cargo ships. It has a main engine for emergency purposes, but it is rarely fired. [stackexchange.com]
Boosting orbit by a significant amount would take a heck of a lot more thrust than the cargo ships currently provide.
There were plans to put a VASIMR plasma engine on ISS. This would give it a very high ISP electrical engine, but I am not sure what happened to these plans.
But, boosting by 2x its current orbit would greatly reduce the amount of cargo that Dragon/Cygnus/Progress can deliver, making such missions have to happen much more often.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 03 2016, @11:52AM
That might be a short term concern. Newer generations like Falcon Heavy can deliver more.
http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities [spacex.com]
For example, for just under 50% more cost, you can get more than 2x the payload to GTO than the predecessor.
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(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday August 08 2016, @02:05PM
Good point. I wonder if they could fix the orbit inclination if they ever boost it. That would cost even more ∆v.
Though if I remember correctly, the crazy inclination is partly so that the station passes over Baikonur. I thought it had something to do with the shuttle, too.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh