NASA’s plan could make way for visits by private-sector astronauts to the International Space Station as early as next year
NASA unveiled an ambitious program Friday to commercialize low-Earth orbit, making way for visits by private-sector astronauts to the International Space Station as early as next year. It would also allow product development and even advertising aboard the space station, along with use of a station docking port for privately financed research and development modules.
NASA’s five-part commercialization blueprint also calls for the agency to facilitate the development of technology needed for free-flying research labs it could then rent out in the future. And it urges work to « stimulate sustainable demand » for commercial R&D in a variety of fields ranging from in-space manufacturing to biomedicine.
Revenue from commercial use of the International Space Station will help offset ongoing operational costs, freeing up resources for NASA’s accelerated Artemis program, which is aimed at sending astronauts back to the surface of the moon in just five years.
« We’re reaching out to the private sector to see if you can push the economic frontier into space, » said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA director of space operations. « This is a shift for NASA that will be beneficial for the American economy and for the American citizens. »
« The commercialization of low-Earth orbit will enable NASA to focus resources to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024 as the first phase in creating a sustainable lunar presence and preparing for missions to Mars, » Gerstenmaier said.
Private-sector astronauts — up to perhaps a dozen a year if demand is high enough — will be able to hitch rides to the station aboard Boeing or SpaceX commercial crew spacecraft now under development. They could spend up to 30 days at a time aboard the station.
