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The International Space Station is likely to continue operating for another decade, but without further government support, a privately owned outpost may not be ready in time to replace it, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said.
Bridenstine told Spaceflight Now that she is concerned that a commercial space station may not be ready when the International Space Station reaches the end of its life.
While NASA focuses more resources on returning astronauts to the Moon and ultimately human expeditions to Mars, the space agency still wants to send experiments and crews into low Earth orbit to test technologies for deep space exploration and exec other research surveys.
Instead of owning and operating a space station, the government wants to rent housing on an orbiting commercial outpost.
“Under no circumstances should we have a vacuum in low Earth orbit,” in a Bridenstine interview. “We have been asking Congress to finance the development of commercial housing in low Earth orbit for several years now. And every year … Congress doesn’t fund it.
“If we continue on this path where we don’t finance the replacement of the space station, we will end up with a gap, which I think is very bad for the country,” Bridenstine said. “Just like after the Apollo ended, we spent eight years before the space shuttle. Just like after the shuttle ended, we had a nine-year hiatus before making the commercial team. “
With SpaceX on the verge of commencing operational commercial crew flights to the International Space Station, low-Earth orbit transportation services for people and cargo are now managed by the private sector. Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, which could become operational next year after experiencing delays, will be a second vehicle for transporting commercial crew to low earth orbit.
Congress has pledged NASA to continue operations of the International Space Station until at least 2024. Lawmakers have proposed another extension to 2028 or 2030, and Bridenstine said he was confident that Congress will soon pass a bill to extend the NASA support to the ISS program at least until the end of the 2020s.
Dmitry Rogozin, director general of the Russian space agency, said last month that Russia is “ready to consider” any proposal to extend the life of the International Space Station.
But Congress did not want to provide funding to NASA to initiate the development of new commercial habitats in low Earth orbit. This raises concerns that the continued presence of humans in orbit – which began 20 years ago last month with the launch of the first crew of the International Space Station – may end when the ISS is decommissioned.
NASA hopes a privately owned outpost will be cheaper to run than the $ 3 billion and $ 4 billion the space agency spends annually on operating the ISS.
“We need to make sure we invest in commercial housing today in the future because NASA wants to be a customer in low Earth orbit, not the owner-operator,” Bridenstine said. “And I think there is an opportunity to avoid a gap if we start right away, but the longer we go, the more likely we are to have a gap.”
The Trump administration requested $ 150 million for NASA’s low-earth orbit commercialization initiative in fiscal 2020, but Congress only approved $ 15 million for the program.
The lack of funding prompted NASA to suspend a solicitation for a company to build a “free-flying” commercial space station.
“Before we can get a solicitation, we need to make sure we have the funds for a selection, so that’s what we’re working on right now,” said Bridenstine.
“The most important thing I’m worried about is that the ISS is reaching the end of its useful life and we don’t have a replacement,” Bridenstine said. “And I’ll tell you why it’s a problem. It’s a problem because China is building its own space station and will attract partners from all over the world, and I think the United States of America should be in the lead. “
NASA has made further progress with its effort to add a privately owned module to the International Space Station. Earlier this year, NASA selected Houston’s Axiom Space to connect a commercial module to the ISS.
Axiom finally plans to build a commercial space station using its ISS module as the core of a new orbiting research complex. The Axiom module would be detached prior to the decommissioning of the International Space Station, which will result in a guided destructive reentry to the Pacific Ocean.
NASA’s $ 140 million contract with Axiom covers only a fraction of the cost of the company’s planned space station. And NASA is paying Axiom to prove its capabilities. Funding to actually build the modules will come from other sources.
“Overall, the cost is between $ 2.5 and $ 3 billion to build our entire space station, and the total amount of the contract we have with the government … is $ 140 million over 5-7 years, a second of the extensions, “said Mike Suffredini, CEO of Axiom, in an interview with Spaceflight Now in September.
“All development money comes from income or investments, and we are very proud of that,” said Suffredini. “We are on time with respect to investments. This is a key part of progress and we like where we are. “
Axiom is also working with NASA to fly paying private astronauts to the ISS.
NanoRacks, another Houston-based company, is also interested in developing a commercial outpost to house people and experiments. NanoRacks plans to launch a small commercial airlock towards the International Space Station later this year.
Bigelow Aerospace, founded by real estate developer Robert Bigelow, has been pursuing plans to build a privately owned space station using inflatable habitats for more than 20 years. But Bigelow laid off the entire workforce in March, according to Space News.
Space News reported that Bigelow said in January 2020 that NASA needs to provide “substantial government subsidies for a period of time until industries are able to stand on their own feet.”
Bigelow Aerospace did not answer Spaceflight Now’s questions.
“There are all kinds of commercial companies that want to do amazing things in space, as long as the taxpayer finances it,” Bridenstine told Spaceflight Now. “I think we need some really strong public-private partnerships for capacity building, and there has to be an offer. Look, we want to be a development partner, for sure, but … in the long run, we want to be a customer, period. “
The Science and Technology Policy Institute, a federally funded research center, concluded in a 2017 market analysis that it was unlikely that a commercially owned and operated space station would be economically viable by 2025, when the Trump administration proposed ending government support for the ISS.
The analysis showed that annual operating costs for a commercial space station could range from $ 463 million to $ 2.25 billion. The report identified several types of activities that could generate revenue on a private space station in low earth orbit, including its use as a habitat or human destination, satellite assistance, space manufacturing, basic research, technology demonstration, Earth observation, advertising, and education.
Boeing, NASA’s primary contractor responsible for the International Space Station, is supporting Axiom and NanoRacks in their development of new commercial space habitats. So far, Boeing hasn’t announced plans to build its own space station.
“It will be really important for companies like Boeing and others to make sure the business case can be closed in the long run,” said John Mulholland, Boeing’s ISS program manager.
“We continue to evaluate it and, of course, are looking into a number of areas where we can add value and contribute, from a primary or supporting role,” Mulholland told reporters in October. “But it all depends on the needs of the customer and the business case that surrounds him. In the short term … our goal today is to support these two companies (Axiom and NanoRacks) and other companies.
“We are looking for opportunities where we can deliver more to our customers,” Mulholland said. “We are examining a number of avenues that we are not ready to discuss today.”
“We were the first integrator of all the science flowing through the space station,” Mulholland said. “So all the payload integration is done by this team.
“On Axiom, we are involved in the early stages of the design,” Mulholland said. “We are moving forward and working, right now, with Axiom on evaluating the initial design work that has been done and helping them chart a path to take it further to the final design.”
Mulholland said Boeing engineers have performed structural analyzes showing the International Space Station can remain operational safely for at least another decade.
“From all the analyzes that have been done, technically, we can support 2030 and beyond,” Mulholland said. “We are finalizing that analysis, so we look forward from a political point of view, for policy makers to remember that in legislation, which we expect next year, and we are very much in favor of that. Technically, this analysis is almost complete. “
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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