NASA awards US$415mil to fund three commercial space stations

Nasa awarded RM1.75bil to private companies to work on replacing the International Space Station, slated to retire by the end of the decade. — NASA TV/REUTERS

NASA on Thursday awarded three companies hundreds of millions of dollars to develop commercial space stations it hopes will eventually replace the International Space Station, which is due to retire around the end of the decade.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, aerospace company Nanoracks, and defense contractor Northrop Grumman won US$130mil (RM549.83mil), US$160mil (RM676.72mil) and US$125.6mil (RM531.23) contracts respectively to develop their orbital outposts.