Boeing, as NASA's lead industry partner for the International Space Station (ISS) since 1993, announced on Wednesday that it will continue supporting the orbiting laboratory through September of 2024 under a 916 million U.S. dollar contract extension.

The company will provide engineering support services, resources, and personnel for activities aboard the ISS and manage many of the station's systems, according to a Boeing statement.

Work will be done at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as other locations around the world. The contract is valued at about 225 million dollars annually, said the statement.

"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.

ISS operations have been extended to at least 2024. Recent structural analysis shows that the spacecraft continues to be safe and mission-capable, the statement said.

NASA selected Boeing as the ISS prime contractor in 1993.

According to Boeing, it has contributed to human spaceflight for more than 50 years, including the Mercury and Gemini capsules, development of the Saturn V rocket, Apollo command and service modules, and space shuttle fleet, in addition to the ISS.

Boeing is also building the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System, a rocket powerful enough to lift astronauts and spacecraft to destinations beyond Earth orbit, such as lunar orbit and Mars, the statement said.

(Cover image: A Boeing factory. /VCG)