SEATTLE — Plans for shifting research from the International Space Station to business space stations late this decade are still a piece in progress, NASA and industry officials say.
In sessions through the International Space Station Research and Development Conference, each NASA and firms said they were committed to a transition from the ISS to business stations by the tip of the last decade but that exactly how that process will work, for each NASA and its international partners, continues to be under discussion.
“That’s a giant a part of what we’re doing in the subsequent few years, trying to take a look at that transition from the ISS to those business LEO destinations,” said Joel Montalbano, NASA ISS program manager, during a panel on the conference Aug. 3.
He said that Robyn Gatens, director of the ISS at NASA Headquarters, has been meeting frequently with the partners, including earlier that week. Those discussions are examining “what can we do this going to allow you to, what could we do this’s going to harm you,” he said.
That can involve some sort of transition period as activities move over from ISS to business stations. NASA has previously discussed having roughly a two-year period, which might require at the least one business station in service by 2028 to enable an ISS retirement in 2030.
“It’s undefined at once,” Montalbano said of that transition. “We’re getting inputs from our partners. We wish to determine what’s going to be helpful, what’s not going to be helpful.”
NASA can also be working on the particular requirements it should levy on business space station providers. “Our team is working really hard on requirements at once,” said Angela Hart, manager for NASA’s Industrial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD, program, on the conference Aug. 3. “In the subsequent yr that is our primary focus.”
NASA plans to issue in the subsequent few months a request for information in search of input on draft requirements. “We’re searching for anyone and everybody’s comments,” she said. “We predict getting that right set of necessities is what’s going to start out us down the proper path to success.”
That effort will develop top-level safety and repair requirements that provide corporations with the pliability to fulfill them in modern ways without being overly prescriptive. “We must be very clear what it’s we wish, but we want to not necessarily say find out how to go do this,” Hart said. That extends to how NASA verifies and validates meeting those requirements, she added.
Firms which can be working on business station designs through the CLD program said during one other conference panel that NASA is doing a great job on the trouble up to now. “It’s splendidly built with foresight and think it’s exactly what we want,” said Mike Lewis, chief innovation officer at Nanoracks, of the CLD program during an Aug. 2 conference panel.
He said this system needs to make sure it incorporates the needs of all users and does so in a way that’s compatible amongst multiple stations. “We want to ensure we’re constructing things which can be compatible for everybody’s research in order that while you’re constructing something, it could go to any of those places. That’s a critical detail.”
One user of the ISS echoed that concern. “The capabilities which can be getting used on the ISS are, if I could, being underappreciated during this transition to the business platforms,” said Alain Berinstain, chief strategy officer at Space Tango, which provides research services on the ISS. “This capability that exists in small corporations, that’s all complementary to one another, must also exist for NASA and other users when these business stations come online.”
Rick Mastracchio, director of strategy and business development at Northrop Grumman Space Systems, said one other issue is how international partners will participate on business stations. “We do need NASA and the federal government’s assistance on that.”
He also cited regulatory and liability uncertainties for business space stations that must be worked out. “We’ll get there, eventually,” he said, “but my biggest concern is that we have now to get there in an inexpensive period of time. We cannot have a niche in low Earth orbit.”