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WASHINGTON — NASA’s latest call for proposals to conduct private astronaut missions to the International Space Station opens the door to having those missions commanded by someone other than a former NASA astronaut.
NASA announced April 2 it issued a solicitation for the next two private astronaut missions, or PAMs, to the ISS. These will be the fifth and sixth such missions to the ISS, part of a broader low Earth orbit commercialization effort by NASA with the ultimate goal of replacing the ISS with one or more commercial stations.
The PAMs support that effort “by leveraging our decades of expertise to help industry gain the experience needed to train and manage crews, conduct research, and develop future destinations,” Dana Weigel, NASA ISS program manager, said in a statement. “Private astronaut missions are a key part of this effort, providing companies with hands-on opportunities to refine their capabilities and build partnerships that will shape the future of low Earth orbit.”
The new solicitation includes rules dating back to the second PAM that require such a mission to be commanded by a former NASA astronaut with flight experience. One minor change is that NASA requires that commander to have served as a long-duration ISS crewmember, defined as 30 days or more.
NASA also requires the commander to have been involved in ISS operations in the last five years or else show evidence of “current, active participation in similar, relevant spaceflight operations” or provide a training plan become familiar again with ISS operations.
The solicitation, though, offers an opportunity to have those future missions commanded by someone other than a former NASA astronaut. While companies must propose a commander who meets current requirements, it can also propose an alternate commander who is a former astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency with similar ISS experience requirements.
“Should NASA broaden its PAM Commander experience requirements, the PAM Provider may designate its alternate Commander as its PAM Commander provided that such a swap does not negatively impact the PAM Provider’s ability to meet the proposed mission integration schedule,” the solicitation states.
That could allow some former astronauts already working with commercial spaceflight companies an opportunity to command PAMs. Axiom Space, for example, announced in July 2024 that former ESA astronaut Tim Peake had joined its astronaut team. That came after Axiom and the U.K. Space Agency signed a memorandum of understanding in October 2023 to study the feasibility of a private astronaut mission crewed exclusively by U.K. astronauts.
Axiom also hired Koichi Wakata, a former JAXA astronaut, in April 2024 as an astronaut and chief technical officer for the Asia-Pacific region. At the Spacetide conference in Tokyo in July 2024, Wakata said he was interested in flying to space again, perhaps on a mission carrying astronauts from the Asia-Pacific.
Axiom Space has won all four PAM awards by NASA to date, flying one mission each in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Its next mission, Ax-4, is scheduled for no earlier than May.
While Axiom has little or no competition for previous PAM awards, it will likely face stiffer competition this time. Vast, a company also planning to develop commercial space stations, has previously stated its intent to submit proposals for the next PAM competition.
The new competition continues a pace of one PAM a year, even though NASA continues to state it will allow up to two such missions annually. PAM 5 is projected for no earlier than May 2026 and PAM 6 no earlier than mid-2027.
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