New Delhi: NASA has successfully managed to establish its brainchild – the International Space Station (ISS) – as a name to reckon with for space and science enthusiasts across the globe.
The ISS has been in operation since 1998 and has completed 18 years, 2 months and 11 days in orbit.
The habitable artificial satellite has been home to many astronauts who have conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields.
Now, Axiom Space, a Houston-based company, is seeking to establish a privately-owned, international commercial space station, with the launch of its first module expected in 2020.
Led by Mike Suffredini, Axiom Space managed NASA's International Space Station program for ten years and is pegging the company's private space station as a successor to the ISS.
This new 'orbital laboratory', it is being said, will host a variety of occupants, including NASA astronauts and astronauts and cosmonauts of sovereign nations, individual explorers and even space tourists.
According to a report in Sputnik News, a study commissioned by Axiom Space concluded that the ‘space city' project could capture a market worth some $37 billion through 2030.
The company is negotiating with more than 20 countries to work out the details of its first research and manufacturing tenant.
The demand partially comes from the fact that the ISS is only funded through 2024, and will be shut down within that time frame.
"We have to operate on the assumption that the ISS could be de-orbited in 2024… perhaps deorbited sometime after that." Blachman said, Sputnik News reported.
NASA has reportedly approved Axiom's plan to attach its first multipurpose module to the ISS in late 2020. Somewhere between 2024-2028, the module would be separated from the ISS to begin its service as the new commercial space station.
