Open for business: Nasa wants to bring enterprise to Space Station

After 15 years as a pure research lab, the International Space Station (ISS) might be ready for business.

Nasa is soliciting ideas from private enterprise on ways to use the orbiting laboratory for commercial purposes, taking another, tentative step in US efforts to create a marketplace in space. Nasa posed the request as a way to engender “out of the box concepts” for the space station since the agency says it’s become clear that “companies don’t think they can go straight to a commercial space station without continuing to take advantage of the ISS to test the waters and see what really will sell or where there may be issues”.

“Commercial companies continue to approach Nasa to use the ISS in ways we never imagined,” the agency said in a blog post accompanying its request for information (RFI). The solicitation is designed “to determine private market interest in using unique ISS capabilities that have limited availability”.

Nasa also requested ideas on operating models, contract structures, and other sustainable business plans for future commercial endeavours 400km above the planet. “It’s an opportunity to gather new ideas from people/industry for future opportunities on the space station,” Nasa spokeswoman Tabatha Thompson said in an email.

In its RFI, Nasa stressed that that for the moment, it just wants to hear ideas. It doesn’t have a budget to help spur any proposed projects, or plans to release them for public perusal. Nasa received 11 submissions “from a broad range of respondents including individuals, small companies and large companies”, Sam Scimemi, division director for the ISS programme, said in an email.  Orbital ATK Inc, which has a Nasa contract to ferry supplies to the ISS, confirmed that it had submitted information, which it declined to reveal.