NASA's lucrative Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract has been bagged by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corp (OSC).

As per the contract deals, SpaceX and OSC will be providing independent cargo re-supply services to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2010 till 2016. While SpaceX has earned 12 missions, Orbital has eight other missions. The 3.5 billion dollars worth of the award equates to Orbital, which won 54 percent of the funding.

According to their specific NASA commercial orbital transportation (COTS) space act agreements, for developing ISS resupply services, SpaceX will deliver its cargo share through 12 launches from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida; while OSC will deliver its cargo share through eight launches from NASA's Wallops Island launch facility in Virginia.

The final docking for both the companies will be undertaken using generic docking ports, with the ISS robotic arm. However, NASA has yet to decide about what mix of cargo would be sent up to the station, and even about what equipment would be returned to earth in the vehicles.

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations, said in case one or both companies have problems meeting schedule, NASA has the ability to "on-ramp" another contractor at a later date. He said that till now "there's really not a backup plan" in place, and added: "We selected companies we thought had a good chance of making it."