Commercial LEO Destinations program

[citation needed] NASA also began a program in 2014, NextSTEP Appendix I,[4] which has the aim to add additional modules to the ISS.

[6] In March 2021, NASA created the Commercial LEO Destinations program which aims to support the design, build and operation of private Earth-orbiting space stations in which the agency would be just one of the customers (tenant or other form of contract), with companies retaining ownership of their stations.

[2] Several companies indicated initial interest in the program during 2021, including Airbus, Blue Origin, Boeing, Collins Aerospace, Firefly Aerospace, General Dynamics, ispace, Lockheed Martin, Moog Inc., Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Redwire, RUAG Space, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, Voyager Space Holdings, and York Space Systems.

[2] The companies that actually applied in August 2021 were:[7] Three teams were selected in December 2021 to continue work with agency grants (subject to approval by the United States Congress[needs update]):[8][9][10][11] Lockheed Martin withdrew from the Starlab project and was replaced by Airbus Defense and Space in 2023.

The company plans in particular to develop an autonomous docking system for its Cygnus cargo ship, which will resupply the station.