privatization
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NASA picks space tourism outfit for its first commercial ISS module
The ongoing NASA privatization push just reached an important milestone. The administration has chosen Axiom Space to supply its first commercial destination module for the International Space Station. The habitable module will connect to the station's Node 2 forward port and serve as an example of what companies can do -- Axiom Space has plans for space tourism and other private journeys. Officials at NASA hope it will usher in a "low-Earth orbit economy" aboard the ISS where NASA is just another customer.
NASA considers selling trips to space tourists
The Jim Bridenstine-era NASA's efforts to privatize spaceflight could involve borrowing a page from Russia. The Washington Post notes the agency is mulling the possibility of offering seats to private tourists on the ships that take astronauts to the International Space Station, similar to how Russia has accepted space tourists in the past. It's just a proposal and would have to clear NASA's advisory council, but it already has the support of an advisory subcommittee.
NASA explores product endorsements and rocket naming rights
NASA's new leader is gung-ho on privatizing spaceflight, and that could lead to some new approaches to branding... like it or not. Administrator Jim Bridenstine has unveiled a NASA Advisory Council committee that will explore the feasibility of commercializing the agency's operations in low Earth orbit to lower its costs while its eyes turn toward the Moon and Mars. Some of these plans could include product endorsements from astronauts and even selling the naming rights to rockets and other spacecraft. You could see an astronaut on a box of Wheaties, or a Red Bull mission to the Red Planet.
Trump administration hopes to privatize ISS after 2024
If the US government plans to stop funding the International Space Station at the end of 2024, there's a big question: what happens next? Hand the keys over to the private sector, apparently. The Washington Post has obtained a NASA document outlining a plan to privatize the ISS as part of a Trump administration budge request. The plan would request funding (starting with $150 million in fiscal 2019) to foster "commercial entities and capabilities" that could fill the ISS' role, potentially including "certain elements or capabilities" of the station itself.
NASA commercializing trips to the ISS?
According to reports this week, NASA appears to be looking for a little help in its Earth-orbit activities to offset long-range exploration costs. The space agency recently signed three new agreements with private companies to share information regarding its technology, with sights set on outsourcing certain crew and cargo related services for the lately troubled International Space Station -- thus freeing up resources for its more ambitious missions to the moon, Mars and the Planet of the Apes.
