{"id":18407,"date":"2018-08-08T20:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T12:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-picks-13-companies-to-envision-the-future-of-orbital-human-spaceflight\/"},"modified":"2018-08-08T20:49:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T12:49:02","slug":"nasa-picks-13-companies-to-envision-the-future-of-orbital-human-spaceflight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-picks-13-companies-to-envision-the-future-of-orbital-human-spaceflight\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA picks 13 companies to envision the future of orbital human spaceflight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"B330-based
An artist\u2019s conception shows three Bigelow Aerospace B330 modules linked together to create a space station being serviced by SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Such a configuration would provide as much pressurized volume as the International Space Station. (Bigelow Aerospace Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thirteen companies, including Boeing and Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture, will be doing studies for NASA on the future of commercial human spaceflight in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

All of the studies are due in December, and are supposed to cost no more than $1 million each. NASA still has to negotiate the contract amounts with the study groups, but it expects the total cost of the effort to come in at around $11 million.<\/p>\n

The exercise is in line with NASA\u2019s initiative to commercialize low-Earth-orbit operations by 2025. The options include handing over of the International Space Station to commercial management, or creating brand-new orbital outposts.<\/p>\n

The gist of the effort is also in line with Bezos\u2019 long-term vision of having millions of people living and working in space. For now, Blue Origin is focusing on suborbital and orbital launch capabilities, plus a lunar lander program known as Blue Moon. But the company\u2019s involvement in these new studies suggests that it\u2019ll be thinking about space outposts as well.<\/p>\n

Boeing, too, has been thinking ahead. In May, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg laid out a vision for having up to a dozen outposts orbiting Earth within a decade or two as part of a new \u201cspace ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 13 studies are expected to lay out business plans for habitable platforms in low Earth orbit, and make recommendations about the International Space Station\u2019s role in the transition to non-governmental orbital enterprises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the International Space Station was established, we could not have anticipated all of the benefits it would provide,\u201d Sam Scimemi, director of the International Space Station division at NASA Headquarters, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to receive this input from the commercial market and aerospace experts to help shape a future thriving space economy in which companies contract with each other to conduct research and activities in low Earth orbit,\u201d Scimemi said.<\/p>\n