|Published: Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 17:49 [IST]

NASA is working on a variety of projects for space exploration and recently began working on the 'robot hotel' at ISS. Now, NASA and Axiom Space, a startup in Houston, have partnered to build the first commercial habitat module for ISS. The habitable module will be used for commercial missions and also housing experiments.

Space travel is soon going to be an exciting thing to look forward to. A lot of companies are already working on this and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk plans to populate Mars by 2050. The new collaboration between NASA and Axiom Space could be the first step to making space travel a commercial possibility.

According to the new plan, NASA plans to develop new technology for commercial space travelers riding to ISS via human-rated spacecraft like the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner. Axiom Space was founded in 2016 and is led by co-founder and CEO Michael T. Suffredini. The CEO was previously a program manager for ISS at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Axiom Space boasts about a lot of ex-NASA personnel on its team, which could be a good thing for the upcoming project. For now, NASA has extended the planned service life of the International Space Station. From the looks of it, NASA is keen to explore its plans for private orbital labs.

The current leadership at NASA is encouraging private and commercial facilities to space. Soon, ISS will wear a different facade. Although the ISS module isn't a full-fledged private space station, it's currently the stepping stone for NASA's goal of commercializing the space station completely. This will also lead to more commercial private space activity in the low Earth orbit.

The Axiom Space mandate with NASA includes "at least one habitable commercial module" and comes with the implication that it might get more extensions in the future. With this, NASA and the startup will negotiate terms and the funds for the contract for the module. Of course, it'll come with a timeline for delivery.

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NASA Ropes In Axiom Space To Develop Habitable Space Station - Gizbot