spacetoday.net: NASA selects three companies for commercial space station studies

Posted: Sun, Dec 5, 2021, 11:25 AM ET (1625 GMT)
NASA selected three companies for more than $400 million in awards to advance concepts for commercial space stations that could succeed the International Space Station. The awards announced Thursday went to teams led by Blue Origin for the Orbital Reef station, Nanoracks for the Starlab station, and Northrop Grumman for an as-yet-unnamed station that would make use of technologies developed for the Cygnus cargo spacecraft and HALO module for the lunar Gateway. The awards cover work through mid-decade to mature the three designs. NASA will hold another competition for these three teams and other companies to certify stations for use by NASA astronauts and purchase initial services. Both NASA and the companies said they were confident those stations could be ready before the ISS is due to be retired at the end of the decade, despite warnings in a report earlier this week by NASA's inspector general.