NASA Provides Updated International Space Station Transition Plan
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that is returning enormous scientific, educational, and technological developments to benefit people on Earth and is enabling our ability to travel into deep space. The Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to extend space station operations until 2030 will enable the United States to continue to reap these benefits for the next decade while U.S. industry develops commercial destinations and markets for a thriving space economy.
As NASA looks forward to a decade of results from research and technology development aboard the International Space Station, the agency is taking steps to ensure a successful transition of operations to commercial services. In response to Congressional direction, NASA has now provided an updated International Space Station Transition Report that details the goals for the next decade of station operations leading to a smooth transition to commercial services, the steps being taken to develop both the supply and demand side of the low-Earth orbit commercial economy, and the technical steps and budget required for transition.
“The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,” said Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters. “This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit. We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow.”
Today, with U.S. commercial crew and cargo transportation systems online, the station is busier than ever. The ISS National Laboratory, responsible for utilizing 50 percent of NASA’s resources aboard the space station, hosts hundreds of experiments from other government agencies, academia, and commercial users to return benefits to people and industry on the ground. Meanwhile, NASA’s research and development activities aboard are advancing the technologies and procedures that will be necessary to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon and the first humans to Mars.
The extension of operations to 2030 will continue to return these benefits to the United States and to humanity as a whole while preparing for a successful transition of capabilities to one or more commercially-owned and -operated LEO destinations (CLDs). NASA has entered into a contract for commercial modules to be attached to a space station docking port and awarded space act agreements for design of three free-flying commercial space stations. U.S. industry is developing these commercial destinations to begin operations in the late 2020s for both government and private-sector customers, concurrent with space station operations, to ensure these new capabilities can meet the needs of the United States and its partners.
“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space,” said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters. “The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030.”
It is NASA’s goal to be one of many customers of these commercial destination providers, purchasing only the goods and services the agency needs. Commercial destinations, along with commercial crew and cargo transportation, will provide the backbone of the low-Earth orbit economy after the International Space Station retires.
The decision to extend operations and NASA’s recent awards to develop commercial space stations together ensure uninterrupted, continuous human presence and capabilities; both are critical facets of NASA’s International Space Station transition plan.
18 responses to “NASA Provides Updated International Space Station Transition Plan”
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there want be any economic reason to sustain a station unless some is found that include people. hopefully that will come
All of the proposed commercial LEO destinations do include people.
thats not the problem. the problem is that none of them have an economic product that makes money off of the people doing “something” to produce value
Superior fiber optics and organ printing are two products that immediately come to mind. While these are made with machines, production machines require technicians to provide maintenance and adjustments for consistent operation
I hope those both mature into viable concepts …their human footprint would be small but it would help
If by superior fiber optics you mean ZBLAN, although it has lower theoretical losses I read that silica fibres have improved hugely and still have the lowest losses in practice. They been trying with ZBLAN in space for many years, but nothing commercial yet ?
When the big breakthrough happens, I wouldn’t be too surprised if it is something that few people had even considered. Amazon’s rise is a good example.
Yep, that is how it always works on economic frontiers. You need to be on the ground to see the opportunities.
Uh-huh. You need to be on the ground to see the opportunities in space. Got it!
Ground floor is a requirement for ridiculous success in many cases. People getting their hands dirty in the early stages often see opportunities invisible to those on the outside. Of course many of those opportunities are insubstantial rainbows without the pot of gold. People on the outside often see no opportunities at all though, and thus miss their chances to be on the ground floor of the ridiculous successes that are obvious only in hindsight. And of course very few are aware of the skeletons of the failures littering the business landscape.
Yep. Jamestown was founded to mine gold and silver, but it’s economic success was based on tobacco. Then they found that timber and tar were good New World products as well, with eventually a third of British ships being built in the New American settlements. And let’s now forget the fur trade the French discovered which made Canada a success.
And if you had attempted to run a business plan to investors based on those ‘chimeras’ of tobacco, timber, and tar you would have likely failed. Investors tend to want a sure thing with risk capital. Gold and silver looked like that to them.
If you bash everything you will be right 90+% of the time. The exceptions are the ones that make fortunes. I read that England had a bureaucrat with the job of predicting whether there would e a war this year. Apparently only wrong twice in 1914 and 1939.
I see one of two things….either the US government gets interested in some high value project in space (solar power for instance) which might happen if Elon get s the access number down light enough ..ot it is as you say an “eureka” moment where someone “breaks the mold” and figures out a space manufacturing process that even if “high” in cost with normal lift is game breaking enough where it alone starts driving the costs down of access to make that “thing” profitable
geo sat comm satellites were such a process…but for it to involve a modest number of humans is going to require something whose acquisition alone drives intervention in cost
hard to know what that is but someone is hopefully working on it now 🙂
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If only we could bring back switchboard operators…
and A. Clark is smiling 🙂 good morning
The most important “product” of these first small commercial stations will almost certainly be space tourism. As a long-time airliner pilot, I would not expect you to sneer at the idea of tourism as a product as that product kept you gainfully employed and your current employer in sales of aircraft to suppliers of tourist transportation for many years.
But tangible product production will also be part of the mix. And, even before that, selling research space to companies that think they have a viable idea for a made-in-space product will also be a significant fraction of what covers the bills.
There is also the still–unknown potential of zero-G sports – combat-based and otherwise. At least two of the five current U.S.-based proposals for commercial LEO space stations have this as part or all of their business plans.
as a long term airline pilot to me there is next to no market for space tourism. there will be a few very few folks who pony up the 20-30-XX million it takes to go to space. in my view the trip will get old quickly. and very rapidly the folks who have that kind of money will figure out that the press, the time that you have to commit to get qualified and the short time on orbit simply are not worth it
the people do not get on an airliner for the flight. they dont care about the ride there. people will pay high dollar for business class but thats just to be comfortable. (a comfort that they are use to) its not to go “gee I am flying over the ocean”
after the first day most of the people in the I4 thing were working their iphones more than anything else. and before that it had been the toliet.
the joys of zero/micro g are vastly overstated by the fan boys sports are the same way
” that, selling research space to companies that think they have a viable idea for a made-in-space product will also be a significant fraction of what covers the bills.”
got to hope that. but again I suspect not. most of the “viable idea for a made in space product” are about robotic or automated manufactoring. not some person putting widgets together. and that is really the only way its affordable. a lot of people might send their “stuff” up there to try it out. but that cost number is really limited I suspect
but one has to hope this works, because there has to be something that justifies humans in space
Pay-Per-View could be huge.