All good things must come to an end, and that's true even of the International Space Station. The orbital laboratory, which has been remarkable on many levels (including getting the US and Russia to get along, sort of), is set to be decommissioned in 2024. Russia already has plans for its own space station, but the American space program hasn't put forward anything new.

At a meeting sponsored by the Secure World Foundation and the Alliance for Space Development, though, one solution was proposed: a privately owned or commercial space station, utilizing corporate (rather than national) stakeholders. Charles Miller, president of NexGen Space LLC, says that space industries will need a place for refueling, orbital assembly, and research in microgravity, and that needs to happen with or without a nationalized space station, according to Marsha Smith at Space Policy Online. Many CubeSat missions additionally utilize the ISS currently (rather than expensive, single serve rocket launches) and would need an in-space launch platform.

Of course, Bigelow is already investing big in the private space station model, including testing out inflatable modules on the International Space Station. But the company has bigger ambitions: its own orbital complex, currently called the Bigelow Commercial Space Station. While originally announced for a 2015 launch, that appears to be set back a little bit, as testing on the inflatable habitat got underway earlier this year and is expected to last for two years. It has tested at least two (uncrewed) prototypes in the past decade, additionally.

There's also the Orbital Technologies (unrelated to Orbital-ATK) plan for a space hotel, originally set for 2016 but now looking closer to 2020. The company is asking around $1 million for an orbital honeymoon, though as Mashable pointed out in 2011, that seems ... unlikely, given the price of a Soyuz seat. (Orbital Technologies is a Russian firm.)

Surely, other private space plans will come up in the coming decade, especially as the death of the ISS becomes closer and closer. The existing space station works more or less on technology from the late 90s and early 2000s, with some upgrades and patches in the intervening years. But by 2028, its system will be too obsolete to continue operations.

This means there will be a new orbital laboratory, or a lot of the demand for private space launches won't be sated. They could end up platforms for mass cubesat launches, destination vacations for the nerdy end of the 1 percent, a private-public venture between national space agencies and private companies, or something else. But an option needs to be in place before 2028, when the non-Russian portion will (likely) be decommissioned and deorbited. But much like the current one, the next generation one could be constructed one piece at a time.

Source: Space Policy Online

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