Companies are rapidly designing private space stations that could one day dominate operations in orbit.
Why it matters: NASA hopes that private industry will begin to take over low Earth orbit operations once the International Space Station is terminated, creating a robust commercial market in that part of space.
- Commercially operated private space stations are a big part of NASA’s vision to buy services from companies in orbit and then focus on targets more distant, such as going to the Moon and Mars.
Driving the news: NASA elaborated an initiative in late March asking companies to partner with them in the development of private space stations that could serve as destinations for NASA astronauts and research in the future.
- Under these agreements, NASA would help the companies develop the space stations and conduct preliminary design assessments – a key engineering assessment of what it takes to make a station fly – by the end of fiscal year 2025.
- Following that announcement, Sierra Nevada Corporation announced its plans to build a private space station.
- Another company, Axiom Space, is already planning to build its own commercial space station after first attaching a module to the International Space Station in the coming years.
Between the lines: NASA wants to avoid a gap in the agency’s regular access to orbit when the ISS retires before the end of the decade.
- The space agency was forced to rely on Russia for orbit access when the space shuttle program ended before commercial flyers like SpaceX were operational.
- Now partnering with private companies, the agency indicates it wants to be able to transfer smoothly to private stations rather than a hard stop when the ISS ends.
- “We’re not going to just turn off the lights one day,” Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial space development, said at an event. “We will have an overlap period where, over time, we will discontinue ISS operations as we expand operations for LEO. [low-Earth orbit] destinations. So that gives us some time. “
NASA has already proven this effectively from this kind of public / private partnership model with SpaceX that allows astronauts to fly to orbit.
But, but, but: Operating a private space station is a much bigger task than simply sending people to space, and some industry experts say there isn’t enough time for private companies to run their space stations before the ISS comes to an end.
- Funding for NASA’s new program may also not be enough to get these stations off the ground on time.
- “I don’t see how they will get it together by 2024 [or] 2028, “Victoria Samson of the Secure World Foundation told Axios.” I think it is much more likely that we will see the Chinese space station well ahead of the commercial space station or a private space station. ”