Twenty commercial space companies joined NASA representative at a conference last week to discuss the commercial possibilities of the International Space Station. NASA has been planning to use the ISS to support the commercialization of space for some time. Stephanie Schierholz, the lead spokesperson for NASA, said, “We’re here because the International Space Station is now open for business.”
The NASA plan included allowing private astronauts to visit and stay on the ISS, brought to the station by U.S. launch vehicles. It also includes inviting private companies to carry out business activities on the ISS. These activities could include “in-space manufacturing, marketing activities, healthcare research and more.”
NASA presented a five-part plan that it insisted would not conflict with the use of the ISS for government and public sector purposes. It will stimulate creative and varied revenue-generating opportunities for private companies. NASA wants to become just one of many users of the ISS and other low Earth orbit facilities. NASA says that this should benefit the U.S. taxpayers too.
Part 1: NASA has created an ISS Commercial Use Policy. This policy provides a menu of supplies and/or resources that will be available for purchase by private companies. Resources such as crew time, cargo launch and cargo return capabilities are just some of the resources that will be available.
Part 2: Private astronauts can book one or two short duration visits per year beginning in 2020. The missions will have to be privately funded, dedicated commercial space flights. These missions will have to use U.S. spacecraft which will include NASA certified space travel vehicles such as the SpaceX Crew Dragon. NASA will provide pricing for such resources as use of life support, supplies for the private astronauts, physical storage, computer usage and data storage.
Part 3: The forward section of the Harmony Node 2 of the ISS will be the first part of the ISS that will be a commercial destination. Other habitable commercial modules are planned for integration into the ISS in the future. NASA will issue a request for proposals on June 14th. And will select the first customer who will start developing the commercial facilities by the end of this year.
Part 4: NASA is working on a plan to stimulate long-term commercial demand. Space manufacturing and regenerative medicine are the first commercials uses for the ISS being considered. NASA has requested white papers by June 15th and proposals by June 28th.
Part 5: NASA has issued a new white paper that details the minimum needs for commercially viable long-term operations on the ISS.
One of the most import parts of the NASA planning is to significantly reduce the cost of commercial transit to and from the ISS. NASA would also like to see private space companies develop and construct a private space station to eventually replace the ISS when it reaches the end of its operational life.
There are about fifty private companies carrying out projects on the ISS right now. The new announcement is aimed at formalizing and scaling operations over the long term.