Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Transportation Request for Information

1. OVERVIEW

NASA is seeking information from established commercial providers and new industry entrants to help shape the future acquisition strategy for Transportation for both crew and cargo to Commercial Low Earth Orbit destinations to maintain America’s presence in LEO.  

This RFI is aligned with the Executive Order “Ensuring American Space Superiority” (December 2025), which directs the United States to: 

• Grow a vibrant commercial space economy through the power of American free enterprise by spurring private sector initiative and a commercial pathway to replace the International Space Station

When the International Space Station reaches its planned end-of-life, NASA will transition to commercially provided space stations.  NASA is evaluating two options for this transition: a direct to commercial station option and an incrementally phased transition. 

Aligned with NASA’s need to maintain presence in LEO, NASA acknowledges and understands the criticality of preventing a transportation gap in LEO, which could be detrimental to the transportation industry and could result in loss of critical, national capabilities.

NASA’s continued needs in LEO to conduct ground-breaking research, technology development, human research, stimulate the commercial market, and to use LEO as a proving ground drive a similar demand and cadence as we have today on the ISS.  The NASA demand in addition to resupply expected for the station is expected to include 2 crew missions and 4-5 cargo missions per year.  Commercial companies may have an increased demand for more short-duration private crewed missions.    

All future station concepts are being designed to be compatible with the current fleet of crew and cargo vehicles to avoid major redesign.   

NASA welcomes input from: 

• Incumbent providers, particularly solutions that evolve existing systems to reduce cost, while maintaining reliability and mission responsiveness, and what business case is required to continue supporting missions for a future LEO station. 
• New entrants should describe a credible path forward toward cargo-class and human-rating certification, including how their architectures, development plans, and programmatic approaches address the requirements of a human-class transportation system. 
• For new launch vehicle systems, articulate path to achieving human rating certification, including plans to meet safety, reliability, verification, and human systems integration requirements. 
• Respondents may describe optional capabilities that extend architectural value or future mission utility, provided these are clearly secondary and do not shift the primary focus away from human transportation services. 

2. REQUESTED INFORMATION

Information provided will be used solely for internal Government planning, market research, and acquisition strategy development purposes. NASA will not publicly release company-specific data or estimates. Any external communication data will be aggregated, anonymized, and non-attributable.  Response to questions can be marked proprietary or confidential information.

Current Providers:  NASA wants to continue the demand for transportation services beyond ISS for a replacement commercial station. 

1. Does this flight rate provide a sustainable business case and do you plan to provide services to the future station?  If not, what are the barriers to you continuing and what would enable you to continue? If yes, is there a date that you do not plan to support beyond with your current architecture?
2. What steps should NASA take to reduce the overall cost of transportation services to LEO?  Are there other new and innovative design options to reduce the overall cost?
3. What risks do you see for cost increase? What are possible mitigations to prevent cost growth while maintaining viability?
4. What transportation gap could you withstand?  What options do you see to close a gap in transportation in the most economical way? 
5. What do you project as the minimum annual flight rate needed to allow you to continue services for a future station?
6. If you see a need for a new launch vehicle system for crew transportation, what is your plan to achieve human rating requirements?
7. What optional capabilities would increase value to your business and not impact the primary mission focus or objectives?

New Entrants: NASA wants to understand the desire of new providers to enter into the transportation ecosystem in LEO to make sure that competition is maintained through the future evolution in LEO.

1. Are you interested in on-ramp opportunities for crew and/or cargo transportation services?
2. What can NASA offer to incentivize new entrants and remove barriers to entry?
3. What do you project as the minimum flight rate and minimum number of flights to close a business case for your potential service?
4. Please describe your potential approach to design, develop, and certify a new system to support LEO transportation.  If pursuing crew transportation, please describe your approach to human rating and certification.

3. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS 

Submissions should adhere to the following guidelines: 

• Responses must be submitted electronically in PDF format to ashley.h.chaves@nasa.gov  no later than April 08, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST. 
• File Format: PDF only 
• File Naming Convention: "OrganizationName_LEOTransportationRFI.pdf" 
• Provide Organization name, address, and point of contact information 
• No Page Limits 
• Respondents will receive a confirmation email upon successful submission 
• Export controlled information should not be included in RFI responses
• Responses to this RFI will not be shared publicly and will be used solely for internal NASA planning purposes
• If proprietary data is included, NASA may use it for internal planning purposes, which may result in future competitive acquisitions

4. DISCLAIMER 

This RFI is issued solely for information-gathering and planning purposes only. It does not constitute a solicitation or a commitment by the Government to procure any services. This is a request for information for planning and information purposes only. This is not a request for proposal or quotation, nor is this a solicitation for a contract or grant award. This RFI does not obligate the Government in any way. The Government will not reimburse the respondents for any costs associated with the information submitted in response to this request.   

No corresponding solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation following this is released, it will be posted on www.sam.gov (https://www.sam.gov/). It is the interested party’s responsibility to monitor this site for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.   

5. POINTS OF CONTACT

For questions regarding this RFI, please email ashley.h.chaves@nasa.gov