NASA hired a third company to fly cargo to the International Space Station, adding an innovative space plane built by Sierra Nevada Corp. to the commercial fleet, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday.
Privately owned Sierra Nevada will join incumbents Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Orbital ATK in ferrying supplies to the space station beginning in late 2019, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
Terms of the contracts were not disclosed, though the overall value of the three awards is capped at $14 billion. Each company is guaranteed a minimum of six flights between 2019 and 2024.