Nasa has extended a contract to Lockheed to all the company to continue providing integration services for cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station for another year.

The contract provides cargo packing for delivery to and from the space station, consisting of pressurised and unpressurised science and logistics carriers, assembly hardware and crew support.

Services include determining the most efficient way to pack cargo, verifying the adequacy of the integrated carriers, packing the pressurised cargo into sub-carriers and returning the cargo to providers once it returns to Earth.

The contract also provides sustaining engineering for Nasa carriers.

The $33m extension brings the total value of the station’s cargo mission contract to $381m since January 2004.

The major subcontractors for the work include Astrium, BAE Systems, Telydyne and United Space Alliance.

The work will be performed at Nasa’s space centres in Houston and Florida.