NASA Sends $100 Mln to Private Space Stations

NASA has provided nearly $100 million in additional funding to commercial space station partners working on developing low Earth orbit destinations, according to a report by Space.

With the International Space Station (ISS) set to retire by 2030, NASA has entered Space Act agreements with Blue Origin and Voyager Space to develop concepts for a new orbital laboratory as part of the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLD) program.

NASA has announced modifications to its existing agreements, including new technical milestones and funding reallocation.

Phil McAlister, NASA's Director of Commercial Spaceflight, said in a statement issued by NASA, that these new milestones will be of tremendous value to NASA and its partners, helping ensure a smooth transition from the International Space Station to commercial destinations.

With this announcement, Blue Origin received an additional $42 million on top of its original $130 million award to develop the Orbital Reef space station concept, which includes Sierra Space, Boeing, Amazon, and several other companies.

The increase includes additional milestones for subsystem design review and technology maturity, as well as work on life support systems within the station, including water purification and atmospheric monitoring, according to the statement.

Voyager Space, which is developing the Starlab orbital complex with Nanoracks, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, received an additional $57.5 million on top of its original $160 million award.

The new funding will be used in various development phases focused on operations, assembly, integration, and testing, as well as proximity and rendezvous demonstrations.

McAlister stated in the release that the major milestones target key technology areas and risk reduction in our partner designs, and they also include additional hardware testing, which is critical for any spaceflight development effort. Additionally, each new milestone represents an opportunity for NASA to gain further insight into the progress our partners are making and the technical designs.