NASA awarded SpaceX a $946 million firm-fixed-price modification on Friday, 18 September 2026, for three more Crew Dragon rotations to the International Space Station: Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17. The order sits under Commercial Crew Transportation Capability — CCtCap — NASA’s commercial contract for flying crew to and from the station.
That books Falcon 9 and Dragon for three more ISS crew flights and related services through 2030, and lifts SpaceX’s CCtCap mission count to 17 and its CCtCap contract value to about $5.92 billion. It does not name the crews or lock firm launch dates for those flights.
What CCtCap Covers
CCtCap is the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract NASA uses to buy crew transport from industry rather than flying only government vehicles. SpaceX and Boeing both hold CCtCap awards dating to 2014 under the Commercial Crew Program; SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was certified for NASA crew flights in November 2020.
This modification is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity add-on for Crew-15 through Crew-17. NASA’s release puts the value at $946 million for all three missions and related mission services — ground, launch, in-orbit work, return and recovery, cargo transportation per mission, and lifeboat capability while Dragon is docked to the station. Flights leave from Florida on Falcon 9 with Dragon.
In practice, that means each rotation is a full crew-transport package: launch and recovery for the astronauts, cargo on the same trip, and a docked Dragon that can serve as a station lifeboat until the mission comes home. Per-mission price breakouts are not in the public award summary NASA posted with this mod.
Through 2030, Readiness Not T-0
The period of performance runs through 2030, with NASA stating mission readiness dates in 2027 and 2028. This however, only constitutes a demand for mission readiness. NASA and SpaceX haven’t agreed on any particular launch windows, but the tempo for crew missions to the ISS should remain relatively steady.
After the mod, SpaceX’s CCtCap total is seventeen crew-rotation missions and $5,919,831,297, based on the final value published at SAM.gov. The sole-source step follows a May 2026 notice of intent, and NASA says it does not stop future modifications for more transportation services if needed. When the award landed, SpaceX’s Crew-12 — its twelfth NASA crew rotation — was already in orbit and docked.
