Cargo resupply mission insurance
Cover for uncrewed cargo vehicles resupplying a space station, where cargo loss sits within a contractual chain distinct from that of ordinary commercial satellites.
Cargo resupply mission insurance covers uncrewed vehicles tasked with delivering hardware, scientific experiments and supplies to a space station, a segment whose contractual structure differs from ordinary commercial satellites. Most client space agencies, foremost among them NASA, contractually waive any claim for damages in the event of failure, a mechanism close to the cross-waiver of liability, which shifts most of the insurable risk toward the value of the cargo carried and the carrier's liability to third parties rather than toward cross-liability between stations. The insured value of the cargo can include unique, non-reproducible scientific equipment, whose loss costs more than a replacement: sometimes an unrecoverable delay to a research program's schedule. For insurers, this segment combines an ordinary launch risk with a cargo exposure whose value can vary enormously from one flight to the next depending on the scientific or logistical nature of the payload, making standard pricing less relevant than for a homogeneous telecommunications satellite fleet.
On June 28, 2015, the in-flight explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpaceX's CRS-7 Dragon capsule destroyed about 4,000 pounds of cargo bound for the International Space Station, including a docking adapter and scientific experiments valued at more than 110 million dollars.
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