The ISS Resupply Machine: How NASA’s Commercial Cargo Model Became the Agency’s Quietest Success Story

In the shuttle era, delivering cargo to the International Space Station meant strapping supplies into a vehicle that cost roughly $1.7 billion per mission to fly, operated by a standing army of civil servants and contractors, and required years of processing between flights. Today, NASA pays around $200 million per mission under fixed-price commercial contracts, launches happen on reused rockets at a pace that barely registers in the news cycle, and the agency doesn’t have to build or operate the spacecraft at all. More

(Source: Space Daily - Apr 14)