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.
