spacex spent its own money to create the falcon 1. creating the falcon 9 was faster because nasa helped with the cost. they also said they would buy several commercial flights. this started with money from the commercial orbital transportation services (cots) program in 2006. the contract was a space act agreement (saa) "to develop and demonstrate commercial orbital transportation service". it included nasa paying for of three demonstration flights. the contract was us$278 million to provide development funding for dragon, falcon 9, and demonstration launches of falcon 9 with dragon. in 2011 other milestones were added, this made the total contract value us$396 million.