NASA Opens Bidding for a Post-ISS Station

NASA released a final Request for Proposals on Friday, inviting industry to submit plans for the next generation of commercial space stations. Administrator Jared Isaacman framed the step as continuity: the agency, he said, is committed to maintaining a sustained American presence in low Earth orbit long after the International Space Station retires.

The pitch to industry is that commercial stations carry the routine of orbit while NASA puts more of its own resources into what Isaacman calls the near-impossible missions ahead. The proposals themselves are the easy part. Whether any of the resulting stations are actually operating before the ISS retires is the harder question, and it isn't one a procurement document answers.