![An artist's concept of ThinkOrbital's ThinkPlatform in low Earth orbit. This is one of several concepts NASA is collaborating with industry via unfunded Space Act Agreements to build out commercial space capabilities in low Earth orbit. Credit: ThinkOrbital](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/thinkplatform_concept_image_2.jpg)
An artist’s concept of ThinkOrbital’s ThinkPlatform in low Earth orbit. That is considered one of several concepts NASA is collaborating with industry via unfunded Space Act Agreements to construct out industrial space capabilities in low Earth orbit. Credit: ThinkOrbital
NASA has partnered with seven firms to assist advance industrial orbital capabilities to satisfy the agency’s needs while build up a industrial low Earth orbit economy.
The seven firms are Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space Corporation, SpaceX, Special Aerospace Services, ThinkOrbital Inc. and Vast Space LLC. Each is partnering with NASA via unfunded Space Act Agreements — meaning no funds are exchanged — and are contributing different points of a future low Earth orbit economy.
For its part, NASA will offer contributions by the use of technical expertise, assessments, lessons learned, technologies and data, the agency said.
“It’s great to see firms invest their very own capital toward progressive industrial space capabilities, and we’ve seen how a majority of these partnerships profit each the private sector and NASA,” Phil McAlister, director of business spaceflight at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in an agency news release. “The businesses can leverage NASA’s vast knowledge and experience, and the agency could be a customer for the capabilities included within the agreements in the longer term. Ultimately, these agreements will foster more competition for services and more providers for progressive space capabilities.”
That is being done under a second “Collaborations for Business Space Capabilities” initiative, or CCSC-2. The goal, in response to NASA, is to advance industrial space-related efforts through contributions by the agency.
NASA said it selected these specific firms based on an evaluation of their relevance to achieving the space agency’s goals in low Earth orbit, in addition to the businesses’ ability to follow through with funding and a sensible business model.
![Blue Origin's launch an manufacturing complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is likely to be the starting location for many of Blue Origin's commercial space activities in low Earth orbit. Credit: Blue Origin](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/orbital-launch-site-aerial-1_2.jpg)
Blue Origin’s launch an manufacturing complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida. That is more likely to be the starting location for a lot of Blue Origin’s industrial space activities in low Earth orbit. Credit: Blue Origin
Blue Origin, based out of Kent, Washington, might be working with NASA to assist develop an “integrated industrial space transportation capability” with the goal of secure, reasonably priced and high-frequency U.S. access to orbit for each crew and other missions.
While specifics weren’t released, this likely involves the corporate’s Latest Glenn rocket, which looks to debut sometime next yr at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Blue Origin also has an enormous facility under construction just outside the Kennedy Space Center perimeter on Merritt Island.
Blue Origin’s ambitions include Latest Glenn, a potentially larger rocket called Latest Armstrong, and a low Earth orbit space station called Orbital Reef. The corporate was also recently awarded a contract to be a second Human Landing System provider for NASA’s Artemis program.
![An artist’s concept of Northrop Grumman’s Persistent Platform concept in low Earth orbit. Credit: Northrop Grumman](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/persistent_platform_poster_1.jpg)
An artist’s concept of Northrop Grumman’s Persistent Platform concept in low Earth orbit. Credit: Northrop Grumman
Dulles, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman’s collaboration with NASA with regard to CCSC-2 is on the corporate’s “Persistent Platform to supply autonomous and robotic capabilities for industrial science research and manufacturing capabilities in low Earth orbit.”
Not lots is thought about this, but based on the corporate’s concept art for this system, it includes cygnus-based architecture.
![An artist's concept of Sierra Space's Dream Chaser space plane docking with the company's LIFE habitat, which could be attached to any commercial space station. Credit: Sierra Space](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/sierra_space_ccsc2.jpg)
An artist’s concept of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane docking with the corporate’s LIFE habitat, which could possibly be attached to any industrial space station. Credit: Sierra Space
Sierra Space Corporation, operating out of Broomfield, Colorado, might be collaborating with NASA specifically on the event of its planned industrial orbital ecosystem, which incorporates inflatable space station habitats, cargo space planes and eventual crewed space planes.
“Sierra Space is constructing the in-space infrastructure and end-to-end business platform to speed up the brand new space economy,” said Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space, in an organization statement. “This agreement with NASA enables energetic collaboration to share our expertise and findings as we conduct the formative work that may open the door to prolonged human missions to space.”
Sierra Space is partnered with Blue Origin on that company’s Orbital Reef project and is under contract with NASA to send a cargo space plane called Dream Chaser to the ISS as early as 2024.
![Starship 24 and Super Heavy Booster 7 on the Starbase Orbital Launch Mount, viewed from Boca Chica Beach on April 19, 2023. Credit: Scott Johnson / SpaceFlight Insider](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1.jpg)
Starship 24 and Super Heavy Booster 7 on the Starbase Orbital Launch Mount, viewed from Boca Chica Beach on April 19, 2023. Credit: Scott Johnson / SpaceFlight Insider
Not surprising on this list is SpaceX of Hawthorne, California. NASA is trying to collaborate with the corporate to construct out an integrated ecosystem in low Earth orbit that uses cargo Dragon, Crew Dragon, Starship and Starlink.
For Starship, the agency is each in-space destination elements in addition to transportation.
![An engineer tests Special Aerospace Services' Autonomous Maneuvering Unit. Credit: Special Aerospace Services.](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/occupied_dark_frontview_4_sas_approved.jpg)
An engineer tests Special Aerospace Services’ Autonomous Maneuvering Unit. Credit: Special Aerospace Services.
An organization called Special Aerospace Services of Boulder, Colorado, is trying to work with the U.S. space agency to assist develop an in-space servicing technology with propulsion and robotic technology.
Called the Autonomous Maneuvering Unit, or AMU, it could possibly be used remotely in addition to an astronaut assist AMU for industrial in-space servicing or other use-cases corresponding to inspections and retrievals, in response to NASA.
![An artist's concept of ThinkOrbital's ThinkPlatform, a space platform in low Earth orbit. Credit: ThinkOrbital](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/thinkplatform_concept_image_2.jpg)
An artist’s concept of ThinkOrbital’s ThinkPlatform, an area platform in low Earth orbit. Credit: ThinkOrbital
Perhaps essentially the most ambitious on this list is ThinkOrbital, based in Lafayette, Colorado. It plans to collaborate with NASA on the event of “ThinkPlatforms” and CONTESA, which stands for Construction Technologies for Space Applications.
NASA said ThinkPlatforms can be self-assembling, single-launch orbital platforms for a large number of use cases for robotic and creed missions. CONTESA, meanwhile, would feature “welding, cutting, inspection and additive manufacturing technologies” as aids in large-scale in-space fabrication.
![A rendering of Crew Dragon docking with Haven-1, a commercial space station being developed by Vast. Credit: Vast A rendering of Crew Dragon docking with Haven-1, a commercial space station being developed by Vast. Credit: Vast](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/VAST-Haven-1_Docking_A2.jpg)
A rendering of Crew Dragon docking with Haven-1, a industrial space station being developed by Vast. Credit: Vast
Finally, the last on the list is Long Beach, California-based Vast Space, which recently announced its intention to launch a small space station called Haven-1 atop a Falcon 9 rocket as early as August 2025.
This single-module, single-docking-port station would allow astronauts in Crew Dragon to increase their orbital stay by as much as 30 days to conduct science, research and other technology demonstrations.
Vast’s collaboration with NASA might be for technologies and operations required for microgravity and artificial gravity stations. Haven-1 will primarily be a microgravity station, but the corporate’s future goals include “Starship-class” modules that could possibly be large enough to spin and produce effective artificial gravity for its occupants.
Over the past decade, NASA has been working to foster a low Earth orbit economy to take the place of the aging International Space Station while expanding humanity’s capabilities circling Earth and eventually beyond.
As low Earth orbit becomes more commercialized, NASA could be a customer for industrial destinations while the agency focuses the majority of its resources and efforts on deep space destinations, corresponding to the Moon for the Artemis program and eventually beyond to Mars.
And as NASA sets up Moon stations and bases, it plans to bring industrial and international partners together with it in order that the endeavor of human space exploration can turn out to be more sustainable because the agency expands deeper into the solar system.
![Orion, Earth and the Moon in the same field of view from one of the camera's located on the end of one of the service module's solar panels. As NASA continues to advance the frontiers of deep space, it aims to bring commercial and international partners along the way to help make the journey long-lasting and sustainable. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/art001e000672_orig.jpg)
Orion, Earth and the Moon in the identical field of view from considered one of the camera’s positioned on the top of considered one of the service module’s solar panels. As NASA continues to advance the frontiers of deep space, it goals to bring industrial and international partners along the method to help make the journey long-lasting and sustainable. Credit: NASA