Work and Play in Space? NASA Awards $415.6 Million for New Space Hubs

Work and Play in Space? NASA Awards $415.6 Million for New Space Hubs
Blue Origin's reusable rocket engine New Shepard is seen on a landing pad after carrying a capsule with Star Trek actor William Shatner, 90, and three others on billionaire Jeff Bezos's company's second suborbital tourism flight near Van Horn, Texas, on Oct. 13, 2021. Mike Blake/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

SEATTLE—NASA announced on Thursday it has awarded $415.6 million to billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, stalwart contractor Northrop Grumman Corp., and venture-backed Nanoracks to develop privately-owned and operated commercial space stations.

The trio of awards are emblematic of the U.S. space agency’s efforts to tap private companies to enable an American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit (LEO) as the iconic International Space Station potentially retires at the end of the decade.