NASA is officially moving forward with its original plan to support stand-alone replacements to the ISS, after industry proved its ready to take on human habitation in LEO.
The space agency released a draft request for proposals on Monday, while indicating that it intended to award early development contracts to at least two station builders. The agency will later hold another competition to award a final design contract to one or more companies.
Prove it: This spring, NASA announced that it was considering pivoting away from its plan to support a private, stand-alone space station model after the ISS was decommissioned, arguing that the market was not strong enough to sustain commercial stations. Instead, the agency put forward a plan to buy a core model that would attach to the ISS, where commercial CLD providers could dock.
CLD companies immediately pushed back, arguing that the market was ready for commercial stations. At the time, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Payload that no final decisions had been made—and it was on industry to prove that the agency was wrong.
Industry apparently did just that. According to a NASA release, companies have shown that they have the capital to get the job done—and predicted that more capital and commercial opportunities would be incoming with NASA’s support of commercial stations.
“NASA’s review reflects what we’ve been hearing from industry throughout this process. Industry believes it can meet the timelines and that a viable commercial marketplace exists where NASA is one customer among many,” Isaacman said in the statement. “We’re focused on supporting those efforts, enabling the capabilities that make this transition possible, and doing all we can to ensure the United States maintains a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit.”
What’s next: Industry feedback on the draft RFP is due to NASA at the end of this month.. Companies will have opportunities to engage with the agency in both group and one-on-one formats during the next two weeks.
NASA also said it intends to publicly release a list of companies interested in competing for the project, to facilitate teaming between commercial partners.
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