Report: SpaceX Price Increase Forces NASA to Pay More for Less Cargo Delivery to Space

NASA will have to pay more money for less cargo delivery to the International Space Station in the 2020’s due to price increases from SpaceX.

Ars Technica reported that “NASA will likely pay $400 million more for its second round of delivery contracts from 2020 to 2024 even though the agency will be moving six fewer tons of cargo.”

The report claimed this was due to a “50-percent increase in prices from SpaceX, which has thus far flown the bulk of missions for NASA’s commercial cargo program with its Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.”

SpaceX’s justification for the price increase included “an upgrade to the company’s second generation of Dragon spacecraft that increased the cargo volume by 30 percent, longer duration missions, and quicker access to the Dragon 2 spacecraft after it returns science samples to Earth.”

Earlier this year, SpaceX delayed a rocket test fire because of a lack of government assistance — despite receiving billions in government money. In March, Elon Musk made waves by deleting the Facebook pages of both SpaceX and Tesla.

Musk’s Tesla faces its own challenges, including recalling half of the cars it has ever built.