Agenda

As the International Space Station is due to retire by the end of this decade, the space industry is gearing up for the future of privately owned space stations to be operated commercially. Many companies are designing and building their own space station to provide a commercial platform for research, manufacturing, tourism, and entertainment.  But is the private sector prepared to provide sustained human presence in the low-earth orbit? And what would be the implications of this transition to the private operators on the new space economy? Have the demands of the private sector materialized enough to fill the gap in the LEO? What’s the feasibility of running and maintaining a space station and how will the private entities sustain the operations?