LEO Project NASA Commercial Destinations for Private Space Stations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration last year marked two decades of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. But as the floating research lab ages, the space agency is turning to private companies to build and deploy new free-flying habitats in low Earth orbit.

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

The agency wants to replicate the success of its commercial cargo and commercial baggage programs. These programs saw three companies take over from NASA as a means to send cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA’s LEO commercial director Phil McAlister said he thinks dominance of Earth’s low orbit has three main activities: “Cargo transportation, crew transportation, and destinations.” NASA has transferred responsibility for the two previous activities to private companies, with the agency paying SpaceX and Northrop Grumman to send spacecraft to the ISS, as well as SpaceX and Boeing to launch astronauts. McAlister noted that previously, NASA had full ownership of all three activities.

“If it always stayed that way, our aspirations in low Earth orbit would always be limited by the size of NASA’s budget,” McAlister said in a briefing on Tuesday. “By incorporating the private sector into these sections and areas, as suppliers and users, you expand the jar and have more people in low Earth orbit.”

The potential cost savings of NASA as a space station user, rather than being an owner and operator, is one of the main reasons for the CLD program. The International Space Station costs NASA about $ 4 billion a year to operate. In addition, the ISS cost a total of $ 150 billion to develop and build, and NASA collected most of that bill while Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada contributed.

NASA last year estimated that the Commercial Crew program alone has saved the agency between $ 20 billion and $ 30 billion, while funding the development of two spacecraft, rather than a single one. Although Boeing has not yet completed development testing, it suffered a major setback after its first launch of unmanned Starliner capsules in December 2019 failed due to multiple anomalies, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft blows astronauts of NASA operationally.

Another reason for starting the CLD program is the aging hardware of the ISS, as much of the basic structures of the space station were manufactured in the 1990s and the final structure was added to pressure in 2011. Last year Russian cosmonauts worked to correct a small air leak in a station module space.

“The ISS is an amazing system, but unfortunately it won’t last forever,” McAlister said. “I could experience an unrecoverable anomaly at any time.”

NASA sees the CLD program as a way for several companies to develop and build new habitats in the coming years, so that the agency has an overlap period before the ISS is removed. McAlister noted that in addition to the CLD program, NASA awarded space flight specialist Axiom Space with a $ 140 million contract to build modules to add to the ISS. When the ISS retires, Axiom plans to separate its modules and turn it into a free-flying space station.

“We’re moving forward and we’re very happy about that,” McAlister said. “We would like to have competition in the supply area, which is why we are doing it [CLD]. It has always been part of our plan to both connect modules and have free flyers. “

An Axiom spokesman, in a statement to CNBC, said the company “broadly supports NASA’s vision of a multifaceted economy in LEO.”

“We are raising private funding to design and develop our world’s first commercial destination to demonstrate that true commercial leadership can advance the LEO economy. The construction of the Axiom station initially as an extension of the International Space Station will expand the work that can be done in- short-term and best possible a timely and perfect transition when the ISS reaches the end of its life, ”Axiom said.

A list of NASA organizations registered for the briefing 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.

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

NASA will release a final announcement for CLD proposals in May, with the first phase of grants scheduled for October-December. NASA’s Johnson Space Center will manage the CLD program through its commercial development office LEO.