NASA on December 18 awarded Boeing [BA] its second Commercial Crew mission to transport humans to the International Space Station (ISS), according to a company statement.

The award is technically a task order to Boeing’s $4.2 billion NASA Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract. Boeing could provide as few as two, and as many as six, missions to ISS after completing human rating certification.

Artist's illustration of Boeing's Starliner space crew transportation capsule (left) as part of Commercial Crew. Photo: Boeing.
Artist’s illustration of Boeing’s Starliner space crew transportation capsule (left) as part of Commercial Crew. Photo: Boeing.

Boeing will transport the crews using its Commercial Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) “Starliner” capsule spacecraft. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is the other contractor providing Commercial Crew services for NASA.