{"id":17757,"date":"2020-03-27T17:40:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T09:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-wins-nasa-contract-to-send-cargo-to-lunar-gateway-with-new-dragon-xl-craft\/"},"modified":"2020-03-27T17:40:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T09:40:18","slug":"spacex-wins-nasa-contract-to-send-cargo-to-lunar-gateway-with-new-dragon-xl-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-wins-nasa-contract-to-send-cargo-to-lunar-gateway-with-new-dragon-xl-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX wins NASA contract to send cargo to lunar Gateway with new Dragon XL craft"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_555394\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-555394\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-555394\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/200327-spacex-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Dragon XL\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/200327-spacex-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/200327-spacex-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/200327-spacex.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-555394\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows SpaceX\u2019s Dragon XL cargo ship as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy\u2019s second stage in high Earth orbit, on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit. (SpaceX Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA has tapped a type of SpaceX cargo craft that hasn\u2019t yet been built to deliver supplies to a moon-orbiting outpost that hasn\u2019t yet been launched.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s robotic Dragon XL, a cylindrical, supersized version of its workhorse Dragon spacecraft, will handle shipments to the Gateway space platform as the first commercial provider to receive a Gateway Logistics Services contract from NASA.<\/p>\n<p>The contract is similar to NASA\u2019s existing Commercial Resupply Services contracts with SpaceX, Northrop Grumman and Sierra Nevada Corp. for cargo shipments to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Artemis program calls for the first elements of the Gateway to go into lunar orbit in the early 2020s, leading up to a crewed moon landing by as early as 2024.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s Dragon XL cargo ships would be launched by the company\u2019s Falcon Heavy rockets to deliver pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including science experiments and crew supplies. Each ship could carry more than 5 tons of cargo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis contract award is another critical piece of our plan to return to the moon sustainably,\u201d NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said today in a news release. \u201cThe Gateway is the cornerstone of the long-term Artemis architecture, and this deep-space commercial cargo capability integrates yet another American industry partner into our plans for human exploration at the moon in preparation for a future mission to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Gateway Logistics Services program allows for multiple supply missions, with cargo ships spending six to 12 month hooked up to the Gateway for each mission.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"We Are Going\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vl6jn-DdafM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s fixed-price contract is for indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity, but it guarantees two missions per provider, with a maximum total value of $7 billion across all contracts as more missions are needed. NASA has as long as 12 years to order missions under the terms of the contract, with a 15-year performance period.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReturning to the moon and supporting future space exploration requires affordable delivery of significant amounts of cargo,\u201d said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer. \u201cThrough our partnership with NASA, SpaceX has been delivering scientific research and critical supplies to the International Space Station since 2012, and we are honored to continue the work beyond Earth\u2019s orbit and carry Artemis cargo to Gateway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cargo supply contracts are likely to be awarded to other providers as the Artemis program progresses.<\/p>\n<p>The coronavirus outbreak has forced NASA to hold up on some of the preparations for Artemis \u2014 including work on&nbsp; its Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule at centers in Louisiana and Mississippi. But SpaceX is continuing work on the Crew Dragon capsule in advance of its first crewed trip to space station.<\/p>\n<p>This week, SpaceX lost a spacecraft-like device when it was dropped from a helicopter, just before a planned test of the upgraded parachute system that\u2019s destined for use on the Crew Dragon. The pilot jettisoned the device as a safety measure when it became unstable during an early stage of the flight, NASA said.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX encountered a different sort of glitch last week, when one of the engines on its Falcon 9 rocket shut down prematurely during a Starlink satellite launch. NASA is participating in the investigation into that anomaly. Despite those snags, NASA said it\u2019s targeting mid- to late May for the first crewed Dragon mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows SpaceX\u2019s Dragon XL cargo ship as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy\u2019s second stage in high Earth orbit, on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit. (SpaceX Illustration) NASA has tapped a type of SpaceX cargo craft that hasn\u2019t yet been built to deliver supplies to a moon-orbiting outpost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2702,2282,678,625,316],"class_list":["post-17757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-deep-space-gateway","tag-dragon-xl","tag-falcon-heavy","tag-moon","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}