Two private companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences will build and launch unmanned supply spacecraft to the space station

The private companies will jointly launch 20 unmanned spacecraft and each of them at least 20 tons of cargo to the space station, after the shut down of the shuttles

Two start-up companies dealing in the field of commercial launches into space have won contracts from NASA to provide a supply service to the International Space Station. SpaceX, also known as Space Exploration Technologies won a $1.6 billion contract while Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Virginia won a $1.9 billion contract.

NASA ordered 12 flights from SpaceX and eight from Orbital. At the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Space Flight, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at SpaceX, Diane Murphy, said that the company, which was founded six years ago, plans to launch cargo to the space station as early as 2009.

Currently, the aforementioned contract is for unmanned cargo flights. However, SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 launcher are rated as suitable for manned launches and are planned to be able to carry a crew of up to seven people to the space station. The Dragon can also be used as an escape spacecraft. If the two companies manage to upload supplies to the station, this could be the way to a potential solution to the gap between Retiring the ferries in 2010 and between the start of service of the Constellation program, hopefully in 2015.

The SpaceX team is proud to have been selected by NASA as the winner of the supply service contract for the space station," said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. "This is a wonderful opportunity, given the soon approaching shutdown of the shuttles and the significant future needs of the space station. It also underscores the success of NASA's COTS program that ushered in a new era for US commercial spaceflight.

"We greatly appreciate NASA's confidence in giving us the opportunity to provide commercial cargo services to and from the space station, beginning with our demonstration flight scheduled for late 2010," said David Thompson, chairman and CEO of Orbital. "The CRS program will serve as a demonstration of the type of commercial service that private space companies in the US can offer to NASA, allowing the space agency to allocate a higher proportion of its resources to the challenges of manned spaceflight, deep space exploration and scientific research of the planets and the universe we live in." said. Orbital will use a space vehicle known as Cygnus to transfer the payloads and they will be launched on a Taurus rocket which the company also developed.

The two contracts, the advantage of which for NASA is that their cost is known in advance and that the companies assume the risks, will begin on January 1, 2009. The contracts are valid until December 31, 2016. The contract requires that at least 20 tons of equipment can be uploaded to the station with each launch. The contract also allows NASA to require non-standard services to support supply to the station including economic analysis and special missions when the government deems them necessary.

NASA has established contract review milestones to track the progress of service delivery. The maximum value of each contract is about 3.1-3.5 billion dollars. These agreements will allow NASA to upload cargo to the space station after the shutdown of the shuttles.

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