Launch contracts

SpaceX won demonstration and actual supply contracts from NASA for the International Space Station (ISS) with technology the company developed. SpaceX is also certified for US military launches of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class (EELV) payloads. With approximately 30 missions on the manifest for 2018 alone, SpaceX represents over $12 billion under contract.

SpaceX along with Virgin Galactic were among the first to have a contract with Spaceport America in New Mexico, the first and only full-scale public commercial spaceport in the United States. Among the tests conducted at the spaceport was the Grasshopper, they continue to have a smaller contract with the spaceport for potential future use, alongside their own private SpaceX South Texas Launch Site to the southwest.

NASAedit

COTSedit

In 2006, NASA announced that SpaceX had won a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 contract to demonstrate cargo delivery to the ISS, with a possible contract option for crew transport. This contract, designed by NASA to provide "seed money" through Space Act Agreements for developing new capabilities, NASA paid SpaceX $396 million to develop the cargo configuration of the Dragon spacecraft, while SpaceX self-invested more than $500 million to develop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. These Space Act Agreements have been shown to have saved NASA millions of dollars in development costs, making rocket development ~4–10 times cheaper than if produced by NASA alone.

In December 2010, the launch of the COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft. Dragon was successfully deployed into orbit, circled the Earth twice, and then made a controlled re-entry burn for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. With Dragon's safe recovery, SpaceX became the first private company to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft; prior to this mission, only government agencies had been able to recover orbital spacecraft.

COTS Demo Flight 2 launched in May 2012, in which Dragon successfully berthed with the ISS, marking the first time that a private spacecraft had accomplished this feat.

Commercial cargoedit

Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of contracts awarded by NASA from 2008 to 2016 for delivery of cargo and supplies to the ISS on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded $1.6 billion to SpaceX for 12 cargo transport missions, covering deliveries to 2016.self-published source? SpaceX CRS-1, the first of the 12 planned resupply missions, launched in October 2012, achieved orbit, berthed and remained on station for 20 days, before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. CRS missions have flown approximately twice a year to the ISS since then. In 2015, NASA extended the Phase 1 contracts by ordering an additional three resupply flights from SpaceX. After further extensions late in 2015, SpaceX is currently scheduled to fly a total of 20 missions. A second phase of contracts (known as CRS-2) were solicited and proposed in 2014. They were awarded in January 2016, for cargo transport flights beginning in 2019 and expected to last through 2024. SpaceX will be using Dragon XL spacecraft on Falcon Heavy rockets to send supplies to NASA's Lunar Gateway space station.

Commercial crewedit

The Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program intends to develop commercially operated spacecraft that are capable of delivering astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX did not win a Space Act Agreement in the first round (CCDev 1), but during the second round (CCDev 2), NASA awarded SpaceX with a contract worth $75 million to further develop their launch escape system, test a crew accommodations mock-up, and to further progress their Falcon/Dragon crew transportation design. The CCDev program later became Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap), and in August 2012, NASA announced that SpaceX had been awarded $440 million to continue development and testing of its Dragon 2 spacecraft.

In September 2014, NASA chose SpaceX and Boeing as the two companies that will be funded to develop systems to transport U.S. crews to and from the ISS. SpaceX won $2.6 billion to complete and certify Dragon 2 by 2017. The contracts include at least one crewed flight test with at least one NASA astronaut aboard. Once Crew Dragon achieves NASA certification, the contract requires SpaceX to conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to the space station. In early 2017, SpaceX was awarded four additional crewed missions to the ISS from NASA to shuttle astronauts back and forth.better source needed In early 2019, SpaceX successfully conducted a test flight of Crew Dragon, which it docked (instead of Dragon 1's method of berthing using Canada arm 2) and then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.

Progressedit

September 16, 2014 – NASA selected SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program.self-published source?

May 6, 2015 – Just after 9 am Eastern Time, SpaceX completed the first key flight test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, a vehicle designed to carry astronauts to and from space. The successful Pad Abort Test was the first flight test of SpaceX's revolutionary launch abort system, and the data captured here will be critical in preparing Crew Dragon for its first human missions.self-published source?

August 3, 2018 – NASA announced the first four astronauts who will launch aboard Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will be the first two NASA astronauts to fly in the Dragon spacecraft.self-published source?

March 2, 2019 – The Crew Demo-1 launched without crew on board. This mission was intended to demonstrate SpaceX's capabilities to safely and reliably fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station.self-published source?

March 3, 2019 – Crew Dragon docked with the ISS at 3:02 a.m. PST, becoming the first American spacecraft to autonomously dock with the orbiting laboratory.self-published source?

March 8, 2019 – Crew Dragon splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 5:45 a.m. PST, completing the spacecraft's first mission to the International Space Station.self-published source?

January 19, 2020 – Crew Dragon test capsule was launched on a suborbital trajectory to conduct an in-flight abort test in the troposphere at transonic velocities, at max Q, where the vehicle experiences maximum aerodynamic pressure. The Crew Dragon splashed down at 15:38 UTC just off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean.

May 30, 2020 - The Crew Demo-2 mission was launched to the International Space Station with American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. This was the first time a crewed vehicle had launched from the US since 2011. This was also the first commercial crewed ISS delivery.

November 16, 2020 - The SpaceX Crew-1 mission was successfully launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker along with JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, all members of the Expedition 64 crew.

National defenseedit

In 2005, SpaceX announced that it had been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, allowing the United States Air Force to purchase up to $100 million worth of launches from the company.self-published source? In April 2008, NASA announced that it had awarded an IDIQ Launch Services contract to SpaceX for up to $1 billion, depending on the number of missions awarded. The contract covers launch services ordered by June 2010, for launches through December 2012. Musk stated in the same 2008 announcement that SpaceX has sold 14 contracts for flights on the various Falcon vehicles. In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the United States Department of Defense. The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded SpaceX two EELV-class missions: Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program 2 (STP-2). DSCOVR was launched on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle in 2015, while STP-2 was launched on a Falcon Heavy on June 25, 2019.

In May 2015, the United States Air Force announced that the Falcon 9 v1.1 was certified for national security space launch, which allows SpaceX to contract launch services to the Air Force for any payloads classified under national security. This broke the monopoly held since 2006 by United Launch Alliance (ULA) over the US Air Force launches of classified payloads.

In April 2016, the U.S. Air Force awarded the first such national security launch, an $82.7 million contract to SpaceX to launch the 2nd GPS III satellite in May 2018; this estimated cost was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost for similar previous missions. Prior to this, United Launch Alliance was the only provider certified to launch national security payloads. ULA did not submit a bid for the May 2018 launch.

In 2016 the US National Reconnaissance Office said it had purchased launches from SpaceX - the first (for NROL-76) took place on May 1, 2017.

In March 2017 SpaceX won (vs ULA) with a bid of $96.5 million for the 3rd GPS III launch (due Feb 2019).

In March 2018, SpaceX secured an additional $290 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch three next-generation GPS satellites, known as GPS III. The first of these launches is expected to take place in March 2020.

In February 2019, SpaceX secured a $297 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch three national security missions, including AFSPC-44, NROL-87, and NROL-85, all slated to launch no earlier than FY 2021.

On August 7 2020 the U.S. Air Force awarded its National Security Space Launch contracts for the following 5-7 years; SpaceX won a contract for $316m for one launch while ULA received a contract for $337m to perform two launches. In addition SpaceX will handle 40% of the US Militaries satellite launch requirements over the 5-7 years while ULA will handle 60%, each company is required to act as backup launch provider for the other.

Space Adventuresedit

In February 2020, Space Adventures announced plans to fly private citizens into orbit on Crew Dragon. The Crew Dragon vehicle would launch from LC-39A with up to four tourists on board, and spend up to five days in a low-Earth orbit with an apogee of over 1,000 km (620 mi).

Kazakhstanedit

SpaceX won a contract to launch two Kazakhstani satellites aboard the Falcon 9 launch rocket on a rideshare with other satellites. The launch took place at Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 3, 2018, with KazSaySat and KazistiSat, included in a payload totaling 64 miniature and small satellites. According to the Kazakh Defence and Aerospace Ministry, the launch from SpaceX cost the country $1.3 million.

Armenian protests against Türksat 5A satellite launchedit

The Armenian community of Los Angeles County, California staged protests at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne on October 29 and October 30, 2020, demanding the cancellation of Türksat 5A satellite launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida scheduled on November 30, 2020. This was preceded by a mass email campaign to SpaceX staff and members of the media by concerned Armenians around the world, asking the company to cancel the launch contract with the Turkish government. The Armenians claimed that the satellite could be used by the Turkish government for military purposes, in view of Turkey’s current provision of unmanned aerial vehicles to Azerbaijan in its armed conflict with Armenia involving the Nagorno-Karabakh region.