Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first phase of CRS contracts (CRS-1) were signed in 2008 and awarded $1.6 billion to

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

for twelve

Dragon 1 SpaceX Dragon 1 is a class of fourteen partially reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. The spacecraft flew 23 missions between 2010 and 2020. Dragon was launched into orbit by the co ...

and $1.9 billion to

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

for eight Cygnus flights, covering deliveries to 2016. The first operational resupply missions were flown by SpaceX in 2012 ( CRS SpX-1) and Orbital in 2014 ( CRS Orb-1). In 2015, NASA extended CRS-1 to twenty flights for SpaceX and twelve flights for

Orbital ATK Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and de ...

. A second phase of contracts (CRS-2) was solicited in 2014. CRS-2 contracts were awarded in January 2016 to Orbital ATK's continued use of Cygnus,

Sierra Nevada Corporation Sierra Nevada Corporation (also styled SNC) is an American aerospace, defense, electronics, engineering and manufacturing corporation that specializes in aircraft modification, integration and other space technologies. The corporation contracts ...

's new

Dream Chaser Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body spaceplane developed by Sierra Space. Originally intended as a crewed vehicle, the Dream Chaser Space System is set to be produced after the Dream Chaser Cargo System cargo variant is opera ...

, and SpaceX's new

Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which cons ...

, for cargo transport flights beginning in 2019 and expected to last through 2024.

Phase 1 contract awards and demonstration flights

NASA has been directed to pursue commercial spaceflight options since at least 1984, with the

Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 is a United States federal law authored to facilitate the private enterprise of the commercialization of space and space technology. The Act of Congress set forth the quest to acquire innovative equipment and ...

and Launch Services Purchase Act of 1990. By the 2000s funding was authorized for the

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was a NASA program to spur the development of Private spaceflight, private spacecraft and launch vehicles for deliveries to the International Space Station (ISS). Launched in 2006, COTS successful ...

program, followed by the

Commercial Crew Development Development of the Commercial Crew Program (CCDev) began in the second round of the program, which was rescoped from a smaller technology development program for human spaceflight to a competitive development program that would produce the space ...

program. On 23 December 2008, NASA announced the initial awarding of cargo contracts - twelve flights to

and eight flights to

Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

."NASA Awards Space Station Commercial Resupply Services Contracts"
. NASA, December 23, 2008.

PlanetSpace PlanetSpace was a privately funded Chicago-based rocket and Spaceflight, space travel project founded by Geoff Sheerin, CEO of the Canadian Arrow corporation. The owner was Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria. In February, 2007, NASA announced plans to prov ...

, which was not selected, submitted a protest to the

Government Accountability Office The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...

. On 22 April 2009, the GAO publicly released its decision to deny the protest, allowing the program to continue. The Antares and Falcon 9 launch vehicles and Cygnus and Dragon cargo spacecraft were developed using

Space Act Agreements Space Act Agreements (abbreviated SAA) are a type of legal agreement specified in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (and subsequent congressional authorizations) that uniquely empowers the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...

under NASA's

(COTS) program. The first flight contracted by NASA,

COTS Demo Flight 1 SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 was the first orbital spaceflight of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the second overall flight of the Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by SpaceX. It was also the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Tra ...

, took place on 8 December 2010, demonstrating a Dragon capsule's ability to remain in orbit, receive and respond to ground commands, and communicate with NASA's

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System The U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS, pronounced "T-driss") is a network of American communications satellites (each called a tracking and data relay satellite, TDRS) and ground stations used by NASA for space communications. ...

. On 15 August 2011, SpaceX announced that NASA had combined the objectives of the

COTS Demo Flight 2 SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), also known as Dragon C2+, was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Cargo Dragon spacecraft. It launched in May 2012 on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight ...

and following Flight 3 into a single mission. The rescoped

successfully launched on 22 May 2012, delivering cargo to the ISS. The spacecraft reentered on 31 May, landed in the Pacific Ocean, and was recovered, completing CRS certification requirements.

first launched the

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by ...

rocket from the

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) is a commercial space launch facility located at the southern tip of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and south of Chincoteague, Vi ...

on 21 April 2013 with a test payload. Orbital Sciences completed the

Cygnus Orb-D1 Orbital-D1, also known as Orb-D1, and Cygnus 1, was the first flight of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. It was named after the late NASA astronaut and Orbital Sciences executive G. David Low. The flight ...

demonstration flight on 29 September 2013, and the operational

Cygnus CRS Orb-1 Orbital-1, also known as Orb-1, was the second flight of the Orbital Sciences Corporation, Orbital Sciences Cygnus (spacecraft), Cygnus cargo spacecraft, its second flight to the International Space Station (ISS) and the third launch of the com ...

was launched 9 January 2014.

Commercial Resupply Services phase 1

Transport flights began under Commercial Resupply Services phase 1 (CRS-1) in 2012:

Cargo Dragon flights

* CRS SpX-1: 8 October 2012 * CRS SpX-2: 1 March 2013 * CRS SpX-3: 18 April 2014 * CRS SpX-4: 21 September 2014. * CRS SpX-5: 10 January 2015 * CRS SpX-6: 14 April 2015 * CRS SpX-7: attempted on 28 June 2015. Launch failure 139 seconds after lift-off, IDA-1 destroyed. Investigation traced the accident to the failure of a strut inside the second stage's liquid-oxygen tank. NASA concluded that the most probable cause of the strut failure was a design error: instead of using a stainless-steel eye bolt made of aerospace-grade material, SpaceX chose an industrial-grade material without adequate screening and testing and overlooked the recommended safety margin. * CRS SpX-8: 8 April 2016 * CRS SpX-9: 18 July 2016 * CRS SpX-10: 19 February 2017 * CRS SpX-11: 3 June 2017 * CRS SpX-12: 14 August 2017 * CRS SpX-13: 15 December 2017 * CRS SpX-14: 2 April 2018 * CRS SpX-15: 29 June 2018 * CRS SpX-16: 5 December 2018 * CRS SpX-17: 4 May 2019 * CRS SpX-18: 25 July 2019 * CRS SpX-19: 5 December 2019 * CRS SpX-20: 7 March 2020

Cygnus flights

* CRS Orb-1: 9 January 2014 * CRS Orb-2: 13 July 2014 * CRS Orb-3: 28 October 2014 - launch failure, food and care packages for the crew, parts, experiments, and the Arkyd-3 Flight Test (Non-optical) Satellite from Planetary Resources lost. Following the failure, the

Antares rocket Antares (), known during early development as Taurus II, is an American expendable medium-lift launch vehicle developed and built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (later Orbital ATK and Northrop Grumman) with financial support from NASA ...

was upgraded to the 230 series which used newly built

RD-181 The RD-191 () is a high-performance single-combustion chamber rocket engine, developed in Russia and sold by Roscosmos. It is derived from the RD-180 dual-combustion chamber engine, which itself was derived in turn from the four-chamber RD-170 ( ...

first-stage engines to provide greater payload performance and increased reliability. The next two spacecraft were launched on the

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...

. With the switch to more powerful launch vehicles and the introduction of a larger Enhanced Cygnus, enabled Orbital ATK to cover their initial CRS contracted payload obligation by OA-7. * CRS OA-4: 6 December 2015 - Atlas V, first Enhanced Cygnus * CRS OA-6: 23 March 2016 - Atlas V * CRS OA-5: 17 October 2016 - Antares 230 * CRS OA-7: 18 April 2017 - Atlas V During August 2015, Orbital ATK disclosed that they had received an extension of the resupply program for four extra missions. These flights enable NASA to cover ISS resupply needs until CRS-2 begins. * CRS OA-8E: 12 November 2017 * CRS OA-9E: 21 May 2018 * CRS NG-10: 17 November 2018 * CRS NG-11: 17 April 2019

CRS Phase 2 solicitation and requirements

NASA began a formal process to initiate Phase 2 of the Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS-2, in early 2014. Later that year, an "Industry Day" was held in Houston, with seven high-level requirements disclosed to interested parties.

Requirements

The contracts were expected to include a variety of requirements: *delivery of approximately per year of pressurized cargo in four or five transport trips *delivery of 24–30 powered lockers per year, requiring continuous power of up to 120 watts at 28 volts, cooling, and two-way communications *delivery of approximately per year of unpressurized cargo, consisting of 3 to 8 items, each item requiring continuous power of up to 250 watts at 28 volts, cooling, and two-way communications *

return Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...

/disposal of approximately per year of pressurized cargo *disposal of per year of unpressurized cargo, consisting of 3 to 8 items *various ground support services

Proposals

CRS-1 contractors

and

each submitted CRS-2 proposals, joined by

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

, and

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

. SNC's proposal would use a cargo version of its

crew vehicle, the 'Dream Chaser Cargo System'. The proposed cargo Dream Chaser included an additional expendable cargo module for uplift and trash disposal. Downmass would only be provided via the Dream Chaser spaceplane itself. Boeing's proposal likewise used a cargo version of its

CST-100 The Boeing Starliner (or CST-100) is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Developed by Boeing under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), it consists o ...

crew vehicle.

proposed a new cargo spacecraft called

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

, derived from the designs of the NASA's

MAVEN MAVEN is a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of that planet's atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution" w ...

and

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods * ''Juno'' (film), the 2007 film Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, a character in the book ''Juno of ...

spacecraft. It would have included a robotic arm based on

Canadarm Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia' ...

technology and a diameter cargo transport module called

Exoliner ''Jupiter'' is a proposed space tug spacecraft concept by Lockheed Martin, which was initially conceptualized as a 2015 bid proposal to NASA for an International Space Station (ISS) cargo resupply services contract. The proposal was not accepte ...

based on the

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable automated cargo spacecraft, cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV desi ...

, to be jointly developed with

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

Awards

Three companies were awarded contracts on January 14, 2016.

, the

, and Orbital ATK Cygnus were selected, each for a minimum of six launches. The maximum potential value of all the contracts was indicated to be $14 billion, but the minimum value is considerably less. CRS-2 launches commenced in 2019 and will extend to at least 2024. Three more CRS-2 missions for Dragon 2 covering up to CRS-29 were announced in December 2020.

Commercial Resupply Services phase 2 - Awards and flights flown

When NASA issued the Commercial Resupply Services phase 2 (CRS-2) request for proposal (RFP) in September 2014, it received interest from five companies: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX. NASA made a competitive range determination to remove Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Orbital ATK (later purchased by Northrop Grumman), Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX were awarded CRS-2 contracts in January 2016 with initial task orders awarded in June 2016. Each of the three companies is guaranteed at least six cargo missions under the CRS-2 contract. As of December 2017, NASA had awarded $2.6 billion on three contracts with a combined, not-to-exceed value of $14 billion. NASA officials explained that selecting three companies rather than two for CRS-2 increases cargo capabilities and ensures more redundancy in the event of a contractor failure or schedule delay. The CRS-2 flights commenced in November 2019 with the launch of

Cygnus NG-12 NG-12, previously known as OA-12, was the thirteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus (spacecraft), Cygnus and its twelfth Commercial Resupply Services flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. T ...

mission. Inside-cargo is typically transported to and from the space station in "the form factor of single Cargo Transfer Bag Equivalent (CTBE) hich is theunit for size of bag used to transport cargo from visiting vehicles, such as

SpaceX Dragon Dragon is a family of spacecraft developed and produced by American private space transportation company SpaceX. The first variant, later named SpaceX Dragon 1, Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) between ...

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

Cygnus, or

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

H-II Transfer Vehicle The H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), also called , is an Expendable launch system, expendable Japanese Cargo spacecraft, automated cargo spacecraft designed for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions, particularly the Kibo (ISS module ...

(HTV). The bags are sized at and limited in transport mass to each. CTBE units are also used to price, and charge, commercial users of

US Orbital Segment The US Orbital Segment (USOS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed and operated by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian ...

stowage space.

Cygnus flights

* CRS NG-12: 2 November 2019 * CRS NG-13: 15 February 2020 * CRS NG-14: 3 October 2020 * CRS NG-15: 20 February 2021 * CRS NG-16: 10 August 2021 * CRS NG-17: 19 February 2022 * CRS NG-18: 7 November 2022 * CRS NG-19: 2 August 2023 As a result Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Northrop Grumman was left with only two remaining Antares 230+ launch vehicles which were used for the CRS NG-18 and CRS NG-19 missions. Northrop Grumman acquired three flights from SpaceX with the Falcon 9 rocket while a replacement first stage and its engine are developed for its Antares 330 rocket. * CRS NG-20: 30 January 2024 * CRS NG-21: 4 August 2024 * CRS NG-22: TBD (indefinitely delayed after cargo module damaged during shipment) Northrop Grumman plans to launch further missions using the new Antares 300 series (Antares 330) rockets with booster stage and engines developed by

Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. The current company was formed when the assets of the former co ...

. These missions are also slated to use a new enlarged "Mission B" variant of the Cygnus spacecraft. * CRS NG-23: Q4 2025 (planned) * CRS NG-24: 2026 (planned) * CRS NG-25: 2026 (planned)

Cargo Dragon flights

* CRS SpX-21: 6 December 2020 * CRS SpX-22: 3 June 2021 * CRS SpX-23: 29 August 2021 * CRS SpX-24: 21 December 2021 * CRS SpX-25: 15 July 2022 * CRS SpX-26: 26 November 2022 * CRS SpX-27: 14 March 2023 * CRS SpX-28: 5 June 2023 * CRS SpX-29: 10 November 2023 * CRS SpX-30: 21 March 2024 * CRS SpX-31: 5 November 2024 * CRS SpX-32: 21 April 2025 * CRS SpX-33: August 2025 (planned) * CRS SpX-34: Early 2026 (planned) * CRS SpX-35: Late 2026 (planned)

Cargo Dream Chaser flights

* SSC Demo-1: Q3 2025 (planned) *CRS SSC-1 to CRS SSC-6: TBA

Notes

References

External links

NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo webpage

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation)

OSC (Orbital Sciences Corporation)

{{Dream Chaser Private spaceflight International Space Station NASA programs Spaceflight

Phase 1 contract awards and demonstration flights

Commercial Resupply Services phase 1

Cargo Dragon flights

Cygnus flights

CRS Phase 2 solicitation and requirements

Requirements

Proposals

Awards

Commercial Resupply Services phase 2 - Awards and flights flown

Cygnus flights

Cargo Dragon flights

Cargo Dream Chaser flights

See also

Notes

References

External links