NewSpace RFP

NASA's first phase of commercial space station work ran on two kinds of instrument. In February 2020 it gave Axiom Space a firm-fixed-price contract worth up to $140 million to build modules that attach to the International Space Station. On December 2, 2021 it signed three funded Space Act Agreements, worth $415.6 million together: $160 million with Nanoracks for Starlab, $130 million with Blue Origin for Orbital Reef and $125.6 million with Northrop Grumman. Vast and six other companies held unfunded agreements, which carry no NASA money. The funded agreements pay as each company completes defined milestones.

The next phase is a contract. NASA posted the final request for proposals for its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination Contract, solicitation 80JSC027R0004, on October 9, 2026 and amended it on October 15. Proposals are due December 8, 2026, and the cover letter plans the award for April 15, 2027. It is a multiple-award contract: NASA plans to select two or more companies for early development, followed by a competitive task order for final design, certification and services from one or more of them. The contract guarantees $100 million in orders and allows up to $34.063 billion. NASA has awarded nothing under it yet. The desk's report of October 16 sets out the contract's terms and how NASA's plan changed after 2024. This report follows the money and the hardware under the first-phase agreements.

Starlab has earned $211 million of its $217.5 million agreement, 97 percent of it.

Voyager Technologies, which owns most of Starlab, reports its agreement milestones in its SEC filings. Voyager had earned $78 million by March 31, 2024, $127.2 million by the end of 2024, $187.2 million by the end of 2025 and $211 million by June 30, 2026. By that date Voyager had also received $211 million in cash. Its quarterly report for that date says all milestone payments have been earned and lists $6.5 million of eligible proceeds remaining. Starlab completed its commercial critical design review, the agreement's 28th milestone, on February 23, 2026. Voyager's annual report of March 10, 2026 puts Starlab's launch in 2029.

NASA moved Northrop Grumman's unpaid money to Starlab and Orbital Reef in January 2024.

Northrop Grumman left its agreement on October 4, 2023 to join the Starlab team. NASA said then that it had paid Northrop $36.6 million for completed milestones, which left $89 million of the $125.6 million unpaid. On January 5, 2024 NASA raised Starlab's agreement by $57.5 million to $217.5 million and Orbital Reef's by $42 million to $172 million, $99.5 million in all, using the money freed by Northrop's withdrawal and other program funding. Starlab's new milestones cover Northrop's Cygnus spacecraft and the station's operations, assembly, integration and testing. Orbital Reef's cover more subsystem design reviews and tests of its life support system.

NASA's latest public figure for Orbital Reef's payments is $24 million, from September 2023.

A NASA spokesperson told CNBC on September 28, 2023 that the agency had paid Blue Origin $24 million for completed milestones. That was 14 percent of the agreement's value after the 2024 increase. The desk found no Orbital Reef launch date published by Blue Origin or Sierra Space in 2026. Sierra Space, Blue Origin's Orbital Reef partner, reported $550 million of equity sold in a Form D filed March 16, 2026.

A search of USAspending, the federal award database, on October 25, 2026 for NASA's grants, cooperative agreements and other assistance since October 2020 to Blue Origin, Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman and Voyager returned 16 awards, all for other work. The station agreements were absent. Starlab's figures here come from Voyager's filings, and the Orbital Reef and Northrop figures from NASA's own statements.

USAspending shows $91.1 million obligated on Axiom's module contract and $84.9 million paid out.

Axiom's contract, 80JSC020D0017, appears in USAspending. NASA signed it on February 28, 2020 as a firm-fixed-price contract after full and open competition, and its period of performance runs to February 11, 2027. Its 63 recorded actions bring obligations to $91.1 million, 65.1 percent of the $140 million maximum. The most recent action that changed the money, on September 28, 2026, removed $4.3 million. USAspending lists no subawards under the contract. Axiom's other NASA contracts total more: the desk's record of USAspending holds 12 prime awards with $603.8 million obligated, the largest $414.5 million for spacesuit services.

Axiom's first module is in final assembly at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Redwire said on October 5, 2026. Its launch date has moved twice. SpacePolicyOnline reported a 2024 launch when NASA chose Axiom in January 2020. In December 2024 Axiom said the module could launch in early 2027, a claim the desk's claims ledger lists as at risk. Redwire, which supplies the module's solar arrays, now says Axiom plans to launch it in 2028. Axiom raised $350 million in equity and debt in February 2026. On September 29, 2026 Axiom suspended a module contract with Gravitics and replaced it with a $270 million cargo contract, Gravitics' merger filing says.

Vast is developing Haven-1 under an unfunded agreement with private funding.

Vast says more than $1 billion has been invested in its stations and facilities, including a $500 million round on March 5, 2026: $300 million in equity and $200 million in debt. Vast announced on February 12, 2026 that it had signed an order with NASA for the sixth private astronaut mission to the ISS. Haven-1's launch date has moved twice: no earlier than August 2025 when Vast announced it in May 2023, May 2026 in May 2025, and ready to launch in the first quarter of 2027 since January 20, 2026. The ledger lists the first-quarter date as pending.

Job postings on five station companies' careers boards rose from 502 to 698 between July 24 and October 25.

The desk's job feed reads each company's own careers board every day and counts a posting as live from the day it first appears to the day it is last seen. Across the boards of Voyager Technologies, Sierra Space, Vast, Axiom Space and Gravitics, live postings went from 502 on July 24 to a peak of 757 on October 7 and 698 on October 25. Axiom's rose from 55 to 128, Voyager's from 102 to 177, Sierra Space's from 165 to 186, Vast's from 165 to 187 and Gravitics' from 15 to 20. Each board covers the whole company, including work outside stations. Blue Origin is left out because the desk reads at most 300 roles a day from its board.

The desk's patent index, drawn from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, holds 374 filings by Blue Origin (160 granted) across all its programs, 49 by Sierra Space (18 granted), 10 by Voyager under its two names, 5 by Axiom and 4 by Vast.

No company's first station module has launched, and the new contract depends on appropriations.

The stated dates for the first modules run from Haven-1 being ready to launch in the first quarter of 2027, in Vast's words, to a 2029 launch for Starlab. The ISS is scheduled to retire in 2030. A continuing resolution, P.L. 119-103, holds NASA at its fiscal 2026 level of $24.4 billion through December 11, 2026, three days after proposals are due. The House Appropriations Committee's fiscal 2027 bill, approved in May, provides no less than $400 million for commercial LEO development, SpacePolicyOnline reported. In June 2026 the Government Accountability Office found that NASA faces several risks that could lead to a gap in human presence in low Earth orbit.

The desk could not confirm these points by October 25.

• How much NASA has paid on Orbital Reef since September 2023, and which of its 2024 milestones Blue Origin has completed.
• How Voyager's statement that all Starlab milestones have been earned squares with the $6.5 million of eligible proceeds its filing lists as remaining. Voyager's third-quarter report will update these figures.
• Who will submit proposals, and how many companies NASA will select. NASA's list of interested parties names only the entities that chose to be listed.
• Axiom's own current launch date for its first module. The 2028 date comes from Redwire.