Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On September 2, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed on Wednesday that it had awarded SpaceX another $1.4 billion contract to carry out five more manned space missions to and from the International Space Station by 2030. This means that SpaceX will carry out 14 manned space missions for NASA by 2030, while Boeing's interstellar line spacecraft will carry out six missions. Based on the total contract value awarded by the two companies, NASA paid Boeing more than twice as much as SpaceX for each astronaut seat.

NASA has said it hopes the International Space Station will be operational until 2030. Under the newly concluded contract, SpaceX will use manned dragon spacecraft to complete 14 manned space missions, while Boeing will carry out six missions during the life of the International Space Station. This is enough for NASA to complete two launches a year, each carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA can still choose to buy more seats for astronauts from any company. "NASA may need more astronauts to go to the International Space Station in addition to the missions it has purchased so far," said spokesman Josh Finch. "the additional contract currently finalised with SpaceX does not preclude NASA from adding to the transport contract if necessary in the future."

Price and performance NASA did not elaborate on the reasons for buying 14 missions from SpaceX and 6 from Boeing. However, NASA and SpaceX's decision to finalize all remaining tasks may be based primarily on the performance and price of past tasks. SpaceX began its manned space mission to the International Space Station in 2020. By contrast, Boeing's interstellar line spacecraft is scheduled to conduct manned flight tests early next year, and its first manned space mission will not take place until the second half of 2023.

In addition, there are some problems with the rockets used to launch interstellar spacecraft. Boeing has purchased a sufficient number of Atlas 5 rocket launch services from the United launch Alliance (ULA) for six missions, but then the Atlas 5 rocket will be retired. Last week, Mark Nappi, Boeing's program manager for commercial manned space missions, said the company was looking for other launch vehicles for launching interstellar spacecraft, including buying Falcon 9 launch services from rival SpaceX; paying ULA to assess the possibility of using a new Vulcan rocket for manned missions; or paying for the launch of the new Glenn rocket to Blue Origin.

At present, it seems that NASA's purchase of manned space services from SpaceX is more cost-effective.

For NASA, there are many ways to assess the true cost of the project. The easiest way is to add up all the money paid by NASA to each company and divide it by the number of astronaut seats throughout the project cycle.

In 2014, NASA narrowed the competition for commercial manned space programs to Boeing and SpaceX. At the time, NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract to develop interstellar spacecraft and complete six manned space missions. Later, in what the NASA inspector general called "unnecessary", NASA added another $287.2 million to Boeing, bringing Boeing's total funding to $4.49 billion. Finch revealed that as of August 1, 2022, Boeing had received contracts worth a total of $4.39 billion.

By contrast, NASA paid $2.6 billion to SpaceX for the development of a manned dragon spacecraft and the same six missions. So far, NASA has agreed to buy a total of eight more manned space missions from SpaceX by 2030. This brings the total amount of contracts awarded to SpaceX to $4.93 billion.

The cost of NASA Boeing's interstellar line spacecraft and SpaceX's manned dragon spacecraft can carry four astronauts for the NASA at a time. Throughout the project cycle, Boeing will carry a total of 24 astronauts for the NASA at a price of $183 million per seat. During the same period, the SpaceX will carry 56 astronauts at a price of $88 million per seat. As a result, taking into account the cost of spacecraft development, the price per seat paid by NASA to Boeing is 2.1 times that of SpaceX.

Judging from these figures, Boeing seems to be making a lot of money, but this may not be the case. NASA's commercial manned space program is a fixed-price contract, which means the company has to pay out of its own pocket for overspending. So far, Boeing says it has spent about $5 billion, mainly because of the need to repeatedly test the spacecraft's unmanned orbit. Boeing has been losing money on the project, two sources said.

Still, Boeing's participation is crucial to NASA, both in promoting competition and in securing funding from the U.S. Congress. Charles Boldon, director of NASA when the contracts were awarded in 2014, said that without Boeing's bid with SpaceX, Congress would not have funded a commercial manned space program.

"Boeing is a dream," says Mr Boldon. "I can call them warriors because they are willing to take risks for a project that did not have a successful precedent at the time. Let me get this straight, I'm not sure this business will work today."

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