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NASA is working on a plan to replace its space station, but time is running out | "Initially, Congress almost treated the program as a joke."
Over the next several months, NASA will finalize a strategy for its operations in low-Earth orbit after 2030. Then, toward the end of next year, the space agency will award contracts to one or more private companies to develop small space stations for which NASA and other space agencies will become customers, rather than operators. But none of this is certain, and as NASA faces a transition from its long-established operations on the International Space Station.
"We’ve gotten ourselves to the point where we kind of understand the risks of a one-year duration mission in space, but we’re going to have to keep pressing on that because we really have to get our arms around mitigations and solutions for what will likely be a two- or three-year trip to Mars." In August, the space agency published a draft version of its "Microgravity Strategy" that will formally establish its low-Earth orbit research and technology development goals in the 2030s and beyond and determine which capabilities it needs to complete them. Although the company may not be ready to bid for NASA's formal CLD program, if Starship begins flying regularly, it is not too difficult to see the potential for short-duration orbital flights for dozens of customers in the 2030s.
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