back to article NASA opens ISS to private sector modules

NASA has opened the door to allow private sector companies to add modules to the International Space Station (ISS). The US space agency will begin this year to offer private sector organisations the potential to build out the 17-year-old station. Agency administrator Charles Bolden says the effort is a bid to foster a " …

  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    "Commercial modules would join the 15 US, Russian, and Japanese modules that comprise the ISS."

    Did they ditch Columbus, did I miss a memo?

    1. Captain DaFt

      And the Canadarm? It's used all the time!

      Tsk, Canada gets no respect.

      1. Alistair
        Coat

        Canadians are used to that.

        Canada the 'really useful country'.

  2. Dr Scrum Master

    Boost

    Attach some rocket boosters to it!

  3. Ru'
    Paris Hilton

    Pron module. Only way to make money...

    1. Christoph

      Free fall porn movies?

      But you may have problems with that (NSFW)

  4. imanidiot Silver badge

    A good chance for Bigelow Aerospace?

    Time for Bigelow to get a full size bouncy castle to the ISS then! They already have BEAM up there as a tech demonstrator. Time to get spacelab sized "elbow room" up there again!

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Go

      Re: A good chance for Bigelow Aerospace?

      Hopefully, once it's had it's 2 years up with no leaks (which is what it's there to test).

      It'll be interesting to see how many flights it would take to launch enough Bigelow modules to double the volume of ISS. Obviously they'd need fitting out afterward but again the problem with the big rockets and the Shuttle flights was large volume x heavy mass of structure.

      I suspect the low(ish) mass of the Bigelow modules and their very compact size changes things quite a bit.

  5. John Mangan

    " NASA was considering selling off the ISS to private investors"

    I wonder what the surveyors report on that will look like?

    "no discernible foundations, some micrometeorite damage, wall ties need looking at . . . "

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: " NASA was considering selling off the ISS to private investors"

      I'm mostly wondering what the Russians would have to say on the matter.

  6. phuzz Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Are we going with "Izzy" as a name now? I do hope so.

    In which case, should we be expecting a rotating torus on one end and a small asteroid on the other?

    (As borrowed from Neal Stephenson's Seveneves attribution fans)

  7. Alister

    Can't wait to see two private contractors arguing over who gets the last docking collar...

  8. D@v3

    a large module, with a couple of extra docking collars?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. David 45

    Boom!

    Hope Samsung doesn't get a look-in on this!

  10. Mark 85

    Just hang a "For Rent" sign and tell prospective tenants that the neighbors might be slightly nuts, but they are harmless and nice folks since they pay their rent every month.

  11. druck Silver badge

    Time for a bit of renovation?

    Once SpaceX (or other commecial companies) are able to do the ferrying of equipment and people up to the ISS, it might well be time to retire the Zarya and Zvezda modules. Firstly because they are the oldest, and secondly how long can we continue to work with the Russians the way things are going? They did threaten to fly them off and form their own station if the ISS was privatised, so good luck to them.

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge

      Re: Time for a bit of renovation?

      Well you'd then end up with no way to keep the station boosted, so it would then re-enter. And the Russians said about separating their modules because the other partners were talking about cancelling the ISS and de-orbiting it. (especially since some are newish, and not even up there yet). I would think that they'd be more than happy to make some money from the ISS, given that their major source of cash, oil, currently sells for less than it costs then to get it out of the ground.

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