NASA Dream Chaser to ferry cargo to International Space Station

NASA has selected three companies to fly cargo to the International Space Station the ISS.

SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corporation are the three companies to ferry cargo to the ISS in 2019. NASA's announcement follows some historic highs and devastating lows in the booming commercial space industry, and it expands the field of companies handling the unmanned missions through 2024.

Each of the three companies will fly at least six missions to the International Space Station. Between 2019 and 2024, NASA will purchase a minimum of six un-crewed cargo missions from each of the three companies. The space agency has the option to purchase additional re-supply missions from any of the three providers.

“Few would have imagined back in 2010 when President Barack Obama pledged that NASA would work ‘with a growing array of private companies competing to make getting to space easier and more affordable,’ that less than six years later we’d be able to say commercial carriers have transported 35,000 pounds of space cargo (and counting!) to the International Space Station -- or that we’d be so firmly on track to return launches of American astronauts to the ISS from American soil on American commercial carriers. But that is exactly what is happening,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

“Today's announcement is a big deal that will move the president’s vision further into the future.”

“The second generation of commercial cargo services to low-Earth orbit begins today,” said Kirk Shireman, ISS Program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“By engaging American companies for cargo transportation, we can focus our attention on using this one-of-a-kind laboratory in the sky to continue advancing scientific knowledge for the benefit of all humanity.”