NASA ‘s LEO Commercial Destinations Project for private space stations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration last year marked two decades of continuous astronauts aboard the International Space Station. However, as the flexible exploration lab grows, the space agency is turning to private companies to build and deploy new free-to-air flight environments in Earth’s low-orbit.

Last week, NASA unveiled the LEO Commercial Destinations (CLD) project, with plans to provide up to $ 400 million to up to four companies in the fourth quarter of 2021 to begin development on private space stations.

The group is trying to replicate the success of the Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew programs. These programs saw three companies take over for NASA as a way to send cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA LEO commercial director Phil McAlister said he thinks of Earth’s low-earth orbit as three main activities: “Cargo transport, crew transportation, and destinations.” NASA has shifted the responsibility of both activities. formerly to private companies, with the agency paying SpaceX and Northrop Grumman to ship cargo spacecraft to the ISS, as well as SpaceX and Boeing to launch astronauts. McAlister pointed out that NASA had full ownership of the previous three operations.

“If it had always been that way, our aspirations in Earth’s low orbit would always have been constrained by NASA’s budget size,” McAlister said in a briefing Tuesday. “By bringing the private sector into those sectors and into those areas, as suppliers and consumers, you expand the pot, and you have more people in Earth’s lower orbit. “

The potential cost savings of NASA using space stations, rather than owner and operator, are a key reason for the CLD program. The International Space Station costs NASA approximately $ 4 billion to operate. In addition, the ISS cost a total of $ 150 billion to develop and build it, with NASA lifting most of that bill while Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada ris.

NASA last year estimated that the Commercial-only Crew program is estimated to have saved the group between $ 20 billion and $ 30 billion, financing the development of two spacecraft, rather than just one. While Boeing has not completed development tests, suffering an extended fix after the first release of its unmanned Starliner capsule in December 2019 failed due to multiple anomalies, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is now actively flying NASA astronauts.

Another motivating factor for the start of the CLD program is the aging hardware of the ISS, as many of the main structures of the space station were made in the 1990s and the final structure was under pressure. added in 2011. Last year Russian cosmonauts worked to capture a small air leak in place of a station model.

“The ISS is an amazing system but, unfortunately, it will not last forever,” McAlister said. “He could experience an anomaly that can’t be recovered at any time.”

NASA sees the CLD program as a way for several companies to develop and build new environments in the next few years, so that time passes over the organization before the ISS retires. . McAlister noted that, apart from the CLD program, NASA awarded the Spaceflight specialist an Axiom Space award with a $ 140 million contract to build modules to complement the ISS. When the ISS retires, Axiom plans to disconnect its modules and turn it into a free-flying space station.

“We’re making progress there and we’re really excited about that,” McAlister said. “We want to have competition in the supply chain, which is why we’re doing [CLD]. It has always been part of our plan to link modules as well as free leaflets. “

An Axiom spokesman said in a statement to CNBC that the company “substantially supports NASA ‘s vision of a multilateral economy in LEO.”

“We are raising private funds to design and develop our world’s first commercial destination to demonstrate that true commercial leadership can boost LEO’s economy. By building Axiom Station first as an extension of the International Space Station we will expand the on – station work that can be done in the short term and optimally enable timely and seedless transitions when the ISS reaches the end of its life, “said Axiom.

NASA’s list of organizations registered for this meeting revealed a wide variety of aerospace and space companies, including: Airbus US, Blue Origin, Boeing, Collins Aerospace, Firefly Aerospace, General Dynamics, ispace, Lockheed Martin, Moog, Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Redwire Space, RUAG Space, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, Voyager Space Holdings, and York Space Systems.

Already, one of these companies has announced that it will soon unveil its plan for a free space station. Sierra Nevada Corporation, or SNC, said it will hold a keynote press conference on March 31 to unveil the design of “SNC Space Station.”

NASA will release a final announcement for CLD proposals in May, with the first round of funding awards expected between October and December. NASA’s Johnson Space Center manages the CLD program through their commercial LEO development office.