Companies are rapidly designing private space stations that could one day dominate operations in orbit around the earth.
Why it matters: NASA hopes that the private industry will start taking over operations in low-Earth orbit as soon as the International Space Station comes to an end, which will create a robust commercial market in the space segment.
- Commercial private space stations are a big part of NASA’s vision to buy services from companies in orbit and then focus on further objectives such as getting to the Moon and Mars.
Send the news: At the end of March, NASA launched an initiative asking companies to work with them in the development of private space stations that could serve as a destination for NASA astronauts and research in the future.
- Under these agreements, NASA will help support the companies as they develop the space stations and conduct preliminary design assessments – an important technical assessment of what it will take to launch a station – by the end of the 2025 financial year.
- On the heels of the announcement, Sierra Nevada Corporation announced its plans to build a private space station.
- Another company, Axiom Space, already has plans to build its own commercial space station after only linking a module to the International Space Station in the coming year.
Between the lines: NASA wants to prevent 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 access to an orbit when the spacecraft program ended before commercial kites such as SpaceX were launched.
- By now partnering with private companies, the agency is signaling that it is capable of moving smoothly to private stations instead of a hard stop when the ISS ends.
- “We are not just going to turn off the lights one day,” said Phil McAlister, director of commercial aerospace development at NASA, during an event. “We are going to have an overlap period where we will, for a period of time, set up the operations of ISS if we increase the operations for LEO [low-Earth orbit] destinations. So it gives us time. ‘
NASA has already proven effective this kind of public / private partnership model with SpaceX flying astronauts to orbit.
But, but, but: Operating a private space station is a much bigger task than simply letting people walk into space, and some industry experts believe that there is not enough time for private companies to operate their space stations before the ISS an end does not come.
- The funding associated with NASA’s new program may also not be enough to get these stations off the ground in time.
- ‘I do not see how they will collect it 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 in front of the commercial space station or a private space station. ”