NASA partners with commercial companies to ensure safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation of cargo and crew members to and from the International Space Station. A platform for long-term research in microgravity, the station has operated continuously for more than 23 years, with its crew members conducting a wide range of technology demonstrations and thousands of experiments in many scientific fields.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program provides systems capable of carrying astronauts to low Earth orbit and the space station through industrial partners who design, build, test and operate these systems. Crew members providing hands-on research is one of the unique advantages of an orbiting laboratory. Human operators monitor Earth events in real time, exchange experimental samples, observe results first-hand, assess when conditions are favorable for data collection and troubleshoot, and otherwise manage and support scientific activities. Crew members also package experimental samples to return to Earth for detailed analysis.
NASA commercial partner Boeing launches NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams on a crewed flight aboard its Starliner spacecraft in May 2024. The spacecraft launches to the space station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Florida. This mission paves the way for NASA to certify the Starliner spacecraft for long-duration orbital missions to the space station.
SpaceX, another commercial partner, flew Demo-1 without a crew in March 2019, and in May 2020, the Demo-2 flight carried NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the space station. The first operational mission, Crew-1, launched in November 2020. Since then, SpaceX has regularly sent crews to the orbiting laboratory on science missions. The Dragon spacecraft launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Commercial flights by NASA crews greatly increased crew time for research and expanded the potential for commercial use of the orbiting laboratory. More crew members mean more time for research and technology demonstrations, and ultimately more scientific results. To date, the results generated by space station research range from improvements in pharmaceutical development to better disaster response, improved materials manufacturing, advances in robotics, bioprinting of human tissue, and more.
By allowing regular rotation of crew members, commercial crew flights also contribute to research on how long-duration missions affect human health, helping to prepare for exploratory missions to the Moon and Mars.
Through NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, partners SpaceX and Northrop Grumman transport cargo to the space station on rockets and spacecraft developed by the companies.
Northrop Grumman transports research and cargo on its Cygnus spacecraft. The company’s first resupply mission launched in 2013 and reached 20 missions by January 2024. When Cygnus leaves the space station, it ejects several thousand pounds of debris that burns up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
The departing Cygnus spacecraft also provides safe platforms for conducting research that could pose hazards if conducted on the space station, such as the spacecraft’s fire safety experiments (Sapphire). This eight-year research series examines flame growth and material flammability in space. The experiments were ignited in the cargo vehicles after their departure from the station and before re-entry to Earth, avoiding potential risk to the space station and its crew.
SpaceX launched its first Dragon cargo mission in October 2012 and by March 2024 had sent 30 commercial resupply missions to the space station. Dragon is a reusable spacecraft that also returns samples from scientific research conducted on the space station. In early 2021, these return flights began splashing near Kennedy rather than the Pacific Ocean. This capability allows scientists to quickly access samples to make further observations and analyzes before the effects of gravity fully return. Many researchers also perform more in-depth analysis later in their home laboratories.
NASA is also working with Sierra Space to develop the Dream Chaser spacecraft to transport cargo to and from the space station. The reusable wing spacecraft is designed to use commercial runways and its cargo is subject to reduced gravitational forces on the return flight. Sierra Space conducted an autonomous atmospheric test flight in 2017.
These commercial partnerships are building a strong American commercial space industry as NASA focuses on developing the next generation of rockets and spacecraft for deep space missions and sending the first woman and first person of color to the moon.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Search this database of science experiments to learn more about those mentioned above.
