NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, or ASAP, recommended in its 2024 Annual Report released Thursday that the agency develop comprehensive timelines and understanding of resources for the planned transition of the International Space Station to a commercial low Earth Orbit destination. The ISS transition plan should establish quantifiable metrics and set progress deadlines to check the viability of the commercial LEO market, ASAP said in its report.
The report also suggested that NASA immediately adapt next-generation extravehicular mobility units, or EVUs, as current space suits astronauts use for operations outside the ISS are now beyond their design life.
ISS Stakeholders
Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, are two companies with EVU stakes. Both vendors secured NASA task orders in July 2023 to develop spacewalking and moonwalking suits for the agency’s space and lunar exploration missions.
On the ISS transition plan, Vast Space unveiled in October Haven-2 that the California-based company envisions as an ISS replacement, with its first module projected to be operational by 2028.
Besides U.S. presence in LEO through the ISS and human risks in space exploration, the 55-page ASAP report also presented the panel’s observations on NASA’s strategic vision and governance.
Positive Panel Rating
The panel’s chair, Susan Helms, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general and former Joint Forces Command commander for space at U.S. Strategic Command, said NASA made “meaningful progress” overall in 2024 to implement ASAP’s recommendations during the past several years.
“We believe that the agency’s careful attention to vision, strategy, governance and program management is vital to the safe execution of NASA’s complex and critical national mission,” she added.
