NASA changing plans on commercial space stations
Posted: Sat, Aug 9, 2025, 11:03 AM ET (1503 GMT)
NASA is changing course on its plans to support development of commercial space stations. In a memo signed by NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy last week, but not yet publicly released, the agency said it would change its plans for the next phase of the Commercial LEO Development program that is supporting development of commercial successors to the ISS. Instead of awarding a fixed-price contract for certification of stations and initial services, NASA will instead award funded Space Act Agreements to companies for continued development, including crewed flight demonstration involving non-NASA astronauts. The move is intended, the memo states, to keep the program on schedule and address a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall. However, NASA says it will no longer require a “Full Operational Capability” that involved a permanent presence of NASA astronauts on those stations, going instead with a minimum capability of four-person crews spending a month on those stations. NASA says it no longer considers binding its LEO Microgravity Strategy published last December that called for a continuous human presence in LEO.
NASA is changing course on its plans to support development of commercial space stations. In a memo signed by NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy last week, but not yet publicly released, the agency said it would change its plans for the next phase of the Commercial LEO Development program that is supporting development of commercial successors to the ISS. Instead of awarding a fixed-price contract for certification of stations and initial services, NASA will instead award funded Space Act Agreements to companies for continued development, including crewed flight demonstration involving non-NASA astronauts. The move is intended, the memo states, to keep the program on schedule and address a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall. However, NASA says it will no longer require a “Full Operational Capability” that involved a permanent presence of NASA astronauts on those stations, going instead with a minimum capability of four-person crews spending a month on those stations. NASA says it no longer considers binding its LEO Microgravity Strategy published last December that called for a continuous human presence in LEO.
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