Where We Are Going in Space

October 16, 2016 – Tomorrow China will send two taikonauts to occupy a recently launched Tiangong 2 space laboratory. In the last week President Obama has shared his vision of a human presence on Mars. Elon Musk has given us his take on how the first Martian colonies will be established. And Jeff Bezos has given us his Blue Origin take on the future of spaceflight.

All this and NASA’s latest announcement to transition the International Space Station from a multi-nation government owned enterprise to one run by private space companies. The idea is to create a much larger space community working in low-Earth orbit with the International Space Station (ISS) the focal point.

The original ISS mission was supposed to end in 2020. The American commitment has extended the space stations life to 2024 but after that date there is only uncertainty about its future. Russia is planning to pull out well before that date.

So NASA sees commercial operators as useful partners to ensure ISS remains viable. Opening ISS to non-government partners to fund the station is the name of the game. NASA’s strategy is to do less in low-Earth orbit and more in Deep Space. Commercial partners are seen as effective players to fill in the vacant niche. That’s why Boeing, SpaceX, Orbital and now Sierra Nevada (all American companies) have been contracted to resupply ISS. Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada are also to ferry human crews to the station starting in 2017.

Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, Orbital, Virgin Galactic, and Bigelow Aerospace are among a number of American companies committed to expand commercial presence in space. ISS is seen as an affordable platform upon which to build a more extensive space infrastructure. Bigelow put one of its inflatable habitats on ISS this year. Its plans are to create satellite space stations using inflatable technology including creating the first space hotels in low-Earth orbit. A much larger inflatable module is planned for ISS well before 2020.

The above companies are among over 70 that have formed the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF). First established in 2006, CSF has declared its mission to democratize access to space for science, the public and business with an ultimate goal to create a sustainable space economy fed by commercial human spaceflight.