Boeing and NASA Extend Partnership for ISS until 2024

Boeing will keep supporting the International Space Station (ISS) through until September 2024 thanks to its renewed contract with NASA, which provides it with $916 million for the job. 

The signed agreement covers matters such as engineering support services, resources, and personnel for activities aboard the ISS. 

SEE ALSO: NASA AND BOEING CONTRACT EXTENDED, OPENING THE PATH FOR MORE ARTEMIS MISSIONS

In it for the long run

It's no new news that NASA and Boeing continue to work together as the airplane company and the space agency have been working alongside each other for a while now.

However, it's still good news when the two extend contracts with a few new outlines.

This specific contract puts Boeing's assistance to work on the ISS, which is now celebrating 20 years of operation. Regular wear and tear from years in Space will see the station decommissioned in the coming decade.

That said, the space station may well continue to operate in the latter half of the decade, however, NASA and its international partners are only committed to participating in its upkeep until 2024. 

After then, any American cooperation will be able to do so through private companies. 

This new extension, shared via an official Boeing press release on Wednesday, allows Boeing to keep managing the ISS' systems as its prime contractor — both in orbit and down on Earth. The Earth facilities include the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral in Florida, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. 

"As the International Space Station marks its 20th year of human habitation, Boeing continues to enhance the utility and livability of the orbiting lab we built for NASA decades ago," said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president, and program manager for the International Space Station.

"We thank NASA for their confidence in our team and the opportunity to support the agency’s vital work in spaceflight and deep-space exploration for the benefit of all humankind."