NASA has released a draft planning document for private space stations that imposes over 3,000 requirements, surprising industry partners and raising concerns about funding and contractual flexibility.
<p>NASA this week released <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/nasa-seeks-industry-input-on-second-phase-of-commercial-space-stations/">a much-anticipated document</a>, known as a "draft Request for Proposals," that provides some clarity about what it expects from US companies attempting to build privately operated space stations in low-Earth orbit.</p>
<p>The stakes are high with this document, known as a draft RFP. The space agency, publicly, has set an end date for the International Space Station of 2030. Although there is likely to be a two-year extension, time is still running short to build, test, and fly a vehicle as complex as a space station. NASA officials and the US Congress have both said they want to avoid a gap in having a human presence in orbit, and this has created considerable urgency about what comes next.</p>
<p>Nearly five years ago the space agency took a concrete step toward filling this gap, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/12/nasa-sets-sail-into-a-promising-but-perilous-future-of-private-space-stations/">awarding funding</a> to three companies to develop space station concepts. Previously, NASA had also provided $140 million to another space station company, Axiom Space. These Space Act Agreements were intended as a prelude to a second phase of the program, which would award substantially more funding to one or two more companies to proceed into the construction and launch of their space stations. But phase two of the program kept getting delayed, in part because Congress dithered on funding.</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/nasa-finally-releases-a-critical-planning-document-for-private-space-stations/">Read full article</a></p>
<p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/nasa-finally-releases-a-critical-planning-document-for-private-space-stations/#comments">Comments</a></p>
# NASA sure seems to be asking an awful lot of private space stations
Source: [https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/nasa-finally-releases-a-critical-planning-document-for-private-space-stations/](https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/nasa-finally-releases-a-critical-planning-document-for-private-space-stations/)
And in this document, NASA has provided guidance\. Quite a lot of it\. Requirements are the key element of a NASA planning document like this, the bureaucratic currency by which NASA buys off on the safety of a spacecraft, such as the amount of habitable volume the agency requires\. Generally, companies prefer fewer requirements as it allows them more freedom for design and innovation\. More requirements give NASA engineers more control over the design of vehicles\.
Several of the companies were shocked by the number of requirements levied in the NASA documents\. One participant estimated there are more than 3,000 requirements\. The companies were hoping for hundreds\. Some of the requirements do seem fairly harsh\. For example, on page 50 of the 246\-page “contract data requirements list,” it appears as though NASA’s chief information officer must approve all software purchases a company makes\.
## Reads like a cost\-plus contract?
“It’s got all the requirements, deliverables, and clauses of a cost\-plus contract, but they are stuffed into a firm fixed\-price bag,” said Phil McAlister, NASA’s former chief of commercial spaceflight, who originally created NASA’s private space station program\. “That would be OK if NASA were willing to pay for all that\.”
But NASA does not appear to be willing to do that, McAlister added\.
The document leaves companies with some key questions, including just how much funding is available—it could be as much as $1\.5 billion over five years, or substantially less—and how many companies will be dividing that funding up\. If there are two winners, the funding is probably enough\. If there are three or more, it could be stretched too thin\.
“At least the draft RFP is out now, so industry finally knows what NASA is asking of them,” McAlister said\. “But the budget and lack of a long\-term contract shows that NASA is still not fully committed to this program\.”
It is important to note that this is just a draft of the RFP document\. The agency will now accept, and certainly receive, feedback from the US space industry about all of this\. A final RFP could come in September, which would then allow companies to bid for contracts\. Awards could be made next spring\.
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