ISS Retires, Opening Up Unique Opportunity for Space Startups

It’s been a busy month in space. Between the return of Boeing’s troubled Starliner (minus its two astronauts, who are currently stranded on the International Space Station (ISS)), the first private Tech billionaire Jared Isaacman’s commercial spacewalkand the new contract NASA recently awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the commercialization of space has gained momentum and made headlines. The transition from government programs to private and commercial space exploration has been underway for a long time, with more and more companies entering the sector to help with everything from supporting the retirement of the ISS to continuing research in both orbital and suborbital space.

Sierra SpaceColorado-based space and defense company is one such company. It has collaborated with NASA build and fly an autonomous resupply vehicle to the ISS. The company is also working on inflatable space habitat called LIFE (short for “Large Integrated Flexible Environment”), which will form the basis of the future space station.

All this comes as the ISS enters its end-of-life phase: a time when NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Russia’s Roscosmos – all partners on the ISS – plan decommissioned and deorbited by 2030. and moving to commercial space stations in lower orbit, built and maintained by private companies such as Sierra Space.

“Space is bipartisan. NASA always faces the challenge of getting enough funding for all the science it wants to do while taking into account all its other priorities,” Angie Wise, Chief Safety Officer and SVP of Mission and Quality Assurance at Sierra Space, told the Observer.We’re starting to see that in the commercial sector, investors are really interested. We’re seeing more and more people interested in investing in these private companies because they see the long-term benefits.”

Commercialization of space is inevitable because governments “wanted an outsider (to shoulder some of the costs of space exploration), and many aerospace companies and manufacturers had very good opportunities and saw potential for partnerships there.” Dafni Christodoulopoulou, a space analyst at Mason Analysishe told the Observer.

The global space economy is expected to reach almost $1.7 trillion by 2033According to Analysys Mason, and it has many facets. In the coming years, everything from scientific and medical research to mining, military work and tourism will take place outside our atmosphere, and that presents a huge financial opportunity for companies looking to make money profit from the future of space.

To get there, these companies must overcome many obstacles, including a very high threshold for human safety, as well as legal issues, including aging space law. Historic disasters like the space shuttle Pretender AND Colombia continue to have a significant impact on public and investor perceptions of space exploration safety. Last week’s Polaris Dawn spacewalk raised some eyebrows relatively important alarm signals for scholars of international law because technically it would violate 50-year-old space law contained in the Outer Space Treaty, which was signed by 111 different nations in the 1960s.

While these factors will continue to influence the future of space commercialization, change is already real and accelerating rapidly. Axiom Spaceanother commercial space company based in Houston, Texas, plans to launch the first commercial space station into orbit in late 2026. The company is inspired by the collaboration and cooperation that has made the ISS such a success over the past 30 years and work abroad to do it all safely, quickly, and with a healthy profit margin. While none of these private commercial space companies publicly report their profits, all hope their financial bets on the future of space commercialization will pay off.