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NASA released this week a highly anticipated documentknown as the “Draft Request for Proposals,” which outlines what is expected from US companies trying to build privately operated space stations in low Earth orbit.
This document, known as the draft RFP, is very lengthy. The space agency, publicly, has set the deadline for the International Space Station of 2030. Although there may be two additional years, time is still too short to build, test, and fly a vehicle as complex as the space station. NASA officials and the US Congress have both said they want to avoid the possibility of human presence in orbit, and this has created a lot of interest in what is to come.
About five years ago the space agency took action to fill this gap, to give money for three companies to develop space concepts. Earlier, NASA also gave $140 million to another space company, Axiom Space. These Space Act contracts are designed to start the second phase of the program, which would provide additional funding to one or two companies to continue building and deploying their stations. But the second phase of the program has been delayed, in part because Congress has stalled on funding.
