NASA rewrites the rules of special space stations developers

PHil Mcalister, who directed NASA’s commercial spaces from 2005 to 2024, which included this commercial space station program, said that the changes that give NASA and companies an opportunity to succeed, given that the agency’s budget will be less than expected.

“How was the previous NASA strategy for commercial stations that will work when they lost nearly a third of its budget?” Tell the Ars. “They had no chance. This gives them a chance.”

It is not clear how generalized this document is widely before the signing of Duffy on Monday. It seems that he has been written in a hurry. Northrop Groman, for example, two different ways are clarified. One of the sources told ARS that the leading leaders of the NASA space operations department had not been informed of the changes before the direction was distributed.

Winners and losers

About five years ago, NASA has granted the first space station development contracts to four different companies: Northrop Grumman, Blue Orige, Axiom Space and Voyageer Space. Since then, Northrop has dropped its efforts and joined the Voyageer team. There was also some attention from other companies, the most prominent of which is vast, which she works with Spacex To develop the initial space station.

Perhaps the most surprising thing in the new guidance is that it seems that it prefers the original NASA contractors. especially, VAST’s HAven-1 Unit It is designed for four astronauts to spend two weeks per orbit, and the company has a more clear path to build a station that meets the minimum NASA requirements.

Other companies were planning larger stations to get more always in orbit, which match NASA’s original desires to the successor of the International Space Station. The new guidance is preferred by the capacity building company through temporary steps, including limited orbit stations.

“All current players will have to do a kind of axis, at least they reconsider their current formation,” said McAelster. “Some players will have to do more difficult.”

One of the industry officials, he speaks anonymously, put it frankly: “Only Haven-1 cannot succeed in this environment. This is our reading.”

The CEO of VAST, Max Haot, told ARS that the company is betting that, starting from the minimum of viable products, was the best work strategy and funded this approach completely without government money.

“It seems that NASA is now tending to an approach to the future of Clds, which the industry believes, can achieve technically and build a reliable business model,” Haot told ARS. “Seeing this information from contractors before adhering to purchasing services can help increase risk reduction in the long run. This appears to be similar to the successful approach that NASA uses for goods and crew.”

VAST worked closely with Spacex to develop its station, to the extent that Haven-1 depends largely on the Dragon spacecraft to obtain life support and some other jobs. Future stations, such as Haven-2, will have more independent capabilities.

This story was originally appeared on Art Technica.