Washington – NASA’s latest calls for proposals to operate private astronaut missions for the International Space Station have opened the door for missions that have been commanded by a person other than the former NASA astronaut.
NASA announced on 2 April that it issued a petition to the ISS for the next two private astronaut missions, or PAMS. These will be the fifth and sixth missions for ISS, which will be part of the wide low -low Earth -class commercialization attempt by NASA with the ultimate goal of replacing ISS with one or more commercial stations to ISS.
NASA Vegel, NASA ISS program manager Dana Weigel said in a statement, PAMS supports the effort that is taking advantage of our decades expertise to help the crew train and manage, conduct research and develop future destinations to develop future destinations. “” Private astronaut missions are an important part of the effort, providing companies opportunities to refine their abilities and form partnerships that will shape the future of the low Earth’s orbit. “
The new solidation includes the rules of dating back in the second PAM, requiring such a mission to command with a flying experience by the former NASA astronaut. A minor change is that NASA requires that the commander has served as a long -term ISS crew, which has been defined as 30 days or more.
NASA also requires the commander to be involved in ISS operations in the last five years or shows evidence of “active, relevant spaceflight operations” or provides a training plan that again familiarize with ISS operations.
However, this urge offers an opportunity to future missions that have been commanded by anyone other than NASA’s former astronaut. While companies should propose a commander who meets current requirements, it can also propose an alternative commander who is a former astronaut with similar experience requirements from the Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
“Should NASA wave its PAM commander experience requirements, the PAM provider can nominate its alternative commander as its PAM commander said that such SWAP does not negatively affect the PAM provider’s ability to meet the proposed mission integration schedule,” says in Solicitation.
This may allow some pre -astronauts to work already with commercial spaceflight companies that give PAMS an opportunity to command. For example, Axiom Space announced in July 2024 that former ESA astronaut Tim Peak had joined its astronaut team. After the AXIOM and the UK Space Agency signed an MoU to study the feasibility of a private astronaut mission in October 2023.
AXIOM also hired Koichi Wakata, a former Jacksa astronaut Koichi Wakata, as an astronaut and chief technical officer for the Asia-Pacific sector in April 2024. At the Spastide Conference in Tokyo in July 2024, the speech said he was interested in flying in space again, perhaps on a mission carrying astronauts from Asia-Pacific.
AXIOM Space has won all four PAM awards by NASA to date, blowing a mission with a mission in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Its next mission is not the first compared to the AX-4, May.
While AXIOM has little or no competition for the previous Pam Awards, it will face the Stifer Competition this time. VAST, a company is also planning to develop commercial space stations, has earlier explained its intention to submit a proposal for the next PAM competition.
The new competition continues to move a palm speed in a year, even though NASA suggests that it will allow even two such missions. Pam 5 is not done earlier and before Pam 6 compared to May 2026, which is not before the mid -2027.
