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

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

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

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal o ...

for twelve cargo

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...

and $1.9 billion to Orbital Sciences for eight Cygnus flights, covering deliveries to 2016. The

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

and

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

rockets were also developed under the CRS program to deliver cargo spacecraft to the ISS. The first operational resupply missions were flown by SpaceX in 2012 (

SpaceX CRS-1 SpaceX CRS-1, also known as SpX-1, was SpaceX's first operational cargo mission to the International Space Station, under their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. It was the third flight for the uncrewed Dragon cargo spa ...

) and Orbital Sciences in 2014 ( Cygnus CRS Orb-1). A second phase of contracts (known as CRS-2) was solicited in 2014. In 2015, NASA extended CRS-1 to twenty flights for SpaceX and twelve flights for Orbital ATK. CRS-2 contracts were awarded in January 2016 to Orbital ATK Cygnus,

Sierra Nevada Corporation Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is an American, privately held aerospace and national security contractor specializing in aircraft modification and integration, space components and systems, and related technology products for cybersecurity and ...

Dream Chaser Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body spaceplane being developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems. Originally intended as a crewed vehicle, the Dream Chaser Space System is set to be produced after the cargo varia ...

, and SpaceX Dragon 2, 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 and Launch Services Purchase Act of 1990. By the 2000s funding was authorized for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, followed by the Commercial Crew Development 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 space travel project founded by Geoff Sheerin, CEO of the Canadian Arrow corporation. The owner is Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria. In February, 2007, NASA announced plans to provide Planet ...

, which was not selected, submitted a protest to the

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal gover ...

. 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 under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (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 Tr ...

, 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. 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, completed CRS certification requirements. Orbital Sciences first launched the

rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on 21 April 2013 with a test payload. Orbital Sciences completed the Cygnus Orb-D1 demonstration flight on 29 September 2013, and the operational Cygnus CRS Orb-1 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

: 8 October 2012 * SpaceX CRS-2: 1 March 2013 * SpaceX CRS-3: 18 April 2014 *

SpaceX CRS-4 SpaceX CRS-4, also known as SpX-4, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS), contracted to NASA, which was launched on 21 September 2014 and arrived at the space station on 23 September 2014. It was t ...

: 21 September 2014. The capsule was subsequently reused on

CRS-11 SpaceX CRS-11, also known as SpX-11, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, launched successfully on 3 June 2017. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX. The mission utilized a Falcon ...

. * SpaceX CRS-5: 10 January 2015 * SpaceX CRS-6: 14 April 2015 at 20:10:41 UTC * SpaceX CRS-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. * SpaceX CRS-8: 8 April 2016 * SpaceX CRS-9: 18 July 2016 * SpaceX CRS-10: 19 February 2017 *

SpaceX CRS-11 SpaceX CRS-11, also known as SpX-11, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, launched successfully on 3 June 2017. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX. The mission utilized a Falcon ...

: 3 June 2017 re-flew the CRS-4 capsule and was the 100th launch from LC-39A. The 2,708 kilograms of cargo included NICER. * SpaceX CRS-12: 14 August 2017. First 'Block 4' Falcon 9, 2,349 kg (5,179 lb) pressurized mass, 961 kg (2,119 lb) unpressurized (CREAM cosmic-ray detector). Last flight of a newly built Dragon capsule. * SpaceX CRS-13: 15 December 2017 * SpaceX CRS-14: 2 April 2018 * SpaceX CRS-15: 29 June 2018 * SpaceX CRS-16: 5 December 2018 *

SpaceX CRS-17 SpaceX CRS-17, also known as SpX-17, was a Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS) to the International Space Station that was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on 4 May 2019. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX. Lau ...

: 4 May 2019 *

SpaceX CRS-18 SpaceX CRS-18, also known as SpX-18, was SpaceX's 18th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services program for NASA. It was launched on 25 July 2019 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The same Dragon capsule has pre ...

: 25 July 2019 * SpaceX CRS-19: 5 December 2019 *

SpaceX CRS-20 SpaceX CRS-20 (CRS-20), also known as SpaceX-20, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 7 March 2020. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using Dragon. This was S ...

: 7 March 2020

Cygnus flights

ISS-47 Cygnus OA-6 approaching the ISS (1)

* Cygnus CRS Orb-1: 9 January 2014 * Cygnus CRS Orb-2: 13 July 2014 *

Cygnus CRS Orb-3 Orbital-3, also known as Orb-3, was an attempted flight of Cygnus, an automated cargo spacecraft developed by United States-based company Orbital Sciences, on 28 October 2014. The mission was intended to launch at 22:22:38 UTC that evening. ...

: 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 230 Development The NASA COTS award was for and Orbital Sciences expected to invest an additional $150 million, split between $130 million for the booster and $20 million for the spacecraft. A Commercial Resupply Service contract of $1.9 bi ...

system was upgraded with newly built RD-181 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 launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...

, with the switch to more powerful launch vehicles and the introduction of Enhanced Cygnus enabling Orbital ATK to cover their initial CRS contracted payload obligation by OA-7. *

Cygnus CRS OA-4 OA-4, previously known as Orbital-4, was the fourth successful flight of the Orbital ATK uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its third flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract ...

: 6 December 2015 - Atlas V, first Enhanced Cygnus * Cygnus CRS OA-6: 23 March 2016 - Atlas V * Cygnus CRS OA-5: 17 October 2016 - Antares 230 * Cygnus 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. * Cygnus CRS OA-8E: 12 November 2017. * Cygnus CRS OA-9E: 21 May 2018. * Cygnus NG-10: 17 November 2018. * Cygnus 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 Orbital Sciences 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 primar ...

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

, and

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

. 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 CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

proposed a new cargo spacecraft called

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

, derived from the designs of the NASA's MAVEN and Juno 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 based on the

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

, to be jointly developed with

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufactur ...

Awards

Three companies were awarded contracts on January 14, 2016.

, the

Dragon 2, 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 CRS-2 request for proposal (RFP) in September 2014, it received interest from five companies – Lockheed Martin Corporation (Lockheed Martin), Boeing, Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX. NASA made a competitive range determination to remove Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Orbital ATK, 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 (6) 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 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,

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military tech ...

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 (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), Canadi ...

stowage space.

Cygnus flights

* Cygnus NG-12: 2 November 2019 * Cygnus NG-13: 15 February 2020 * Cygnus NG-14: 3 October 2020 *

Cygnus NG-15 NG-15, previously known as OA-15, was the fifteenth launch of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fourteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract wi ...

: 20 February 2021 * Cygnus NG-16: 10 August 2021 *

Cygnus NG-17 Cygnus NG-17, previously known as Cygnus OA-17, was the seventeenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its sixteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS ...

: 19 February 2022 * Cygnus NG-18: 7 November 2022 As a result Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Northrop Grumman was left with only two remaining Antares 230+ launch vehicles. As of December 2022, one has been used and the other is planned to be used for the next launch. * Cygnus NG-19: March 2023 (planned) 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. * Cygnus NG-20: 2023 (planned) * Cygnus NG-21: 2024 (planned) * Cygnus NG-22: 2024 (planned) The following missions will be launched with the new Antares 300 series (Antares 330) rockets using booster stage and engines developed by Firefly Aerospace. *Cygnus NG-23 to NG-25: 2025–2026 (planned)

Cargo Dragon flights

* SpaceX CRS-21: 6 December 2020 * SpaceX CRS-22: 3 June 2021 *

SpaceX CRS-23 SpaceX CRS-23, also known as SpX-23, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, successfully launched on 29 August 2021 and docking the following day. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by Spac ...

: 29 August 2021 * SpaceX CRS-24: 21 December 2021 *

SpaceX CRS-25 SpaceX CRS-25, also known as SpX-25, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission (CRS) to the International Space Station (ISS) that was launched on 15 July 2022. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using their reusable s ...

: 15 July 2022 *

SpaceX CRS-26 SpaceX CRS-26, also known as SpX-26, is a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 26 November 2022. The mission is contracted by NASA and is flown by SpaceX using a . This is the sixth flight fo ...

: 26 November 2022 *SpaceX CRS-27: 19 February 2023 (planned) *SpaceX CRS-28: June 2023 (planned) *SpaceX CRS-29: October 2023 (planned) *SpaceX CRS-30 to CRS-35: 2024–2026 (planned)

Cargo Dream Chaser flights

*SNC Demo-1: 2023 (second flight of Vulcan Centaur#Certification flights, Vulcan) *SNC 1: 2023 *SNC 2: 2023 *SNC 3: 2024 *SNC 4: 2024 *SNC 5: 2025 *SNC 6: 2026

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