Rockets of Today

If you still want more, here’s some information about current and proposed habitats which support long-term human residence in zero gravity. Several companies have talked up their vision for future privately-owned stations, and are angling for NASA support to become a successor to the International Space Station, but as yet none have reached definite enough plans to warrant separate articles here. The one company actually building something today is Axiom, but their habitat will for the near term be incorporated as part of the ISS rather than being independent, so it’s described for now within the ISS article. So far, NASA has committed to one module from them. Competing proposals from Nanoracks/Lockheed (“Starlab”) and Blue Origin/Sierra (“Orbital Reef”) will warrant coverage if and when they do something concrete. Russia’s and India’s plans for new national stations have also yet to firm up sufficiently, and that’s doubly true for the Russo-Chinese joint lunar program. So besides articles on the ISS and China’s Tiangong, the only future station described here is NASA’s Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway.