NASA plans to partner with commercial companies for the development of future space-based facilities as the International Space Station nears the end of service life, Nextgov reported Thursday.
Phil McAlister, the agency’s director of commercial spaceflight, said at Nextgov’s Emerging Tech Summit that they anticipate the ISS’s retirement within the decade’s latter part.
“We want that to be provided by the private sector so that we can just buy services from that destination, just like anybody else,” he said, noting that NASA does not want the next space station to be government-made.
McAlister said this commercial approach would allow NASA to apply more focus on deep space exploration efforts.
