NASA wants to get out of the space station business and put it in the hands of, well, businesses. The agency is planning to send the International Space Station (ISS) to a fiery death through Earth’s atmosphere in 2031 so it can focus on its longer-term, farther-out (literally) goals such as going back to the moon. Elon Musk recently called for the agency to deorbit the station much sooner.
But agency officials are hoping humans will still have a future in Earth orbit through NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development program. The initiative has commissioned private companies to come up with their own flashy corporate solutions to in-space stays.
Those stations could house astronauts from the U.S. as well as other countries. Furthermore, both NASA and the space station makers themselves are banking on the demand of other customers—private researchers, tourists and companies such as pharmaceutical firms—to stimulate a space economy that’s sustainable with or without NASA money.
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