Since the beginning of the third millennium, we are witnessing a significant increase in the number of commercial activities happening in space. In fact, commercial actors have outpaced national governments in these activities - the report issued by the Space Foundation notes that the commercial revenue now represents more than 80% of the whole global space economy (Space Foundation, 2021).

Commercial actors have traditionally been active in the field of satellite manufacturing and satellite operations. In recent years there has been a surge in the development and operation of commercial launch vehicles but also manned and unmanned spacecraft. Today, a number of commercial players are also interested in building more advanced platforms for research or technology demonstrations and in the development of whole space stations.

Space stations have traditionally been regarded as the domain of governments, with only a few having tangible experience with designing, building, and operating such manned outposts. This trend is now slowly shifting and there are efforts to engage the commercial sector with the activities happening on the ISS. The private sector conducts experiments, owns research platforms, and even whole modules. Commercial engagement in the field of space station utilization is also visible in the field of space tourism – earlier this year we witnessed the first fully commercial mission to the ISS with private spacecraft carrying private astronauts. Thus, becoming aware of the potential of the utilization of space stations, it comes as no surprise that the private sector is increasingly interested in developing their own stations – these would be much smaller in size than those currently in orbit but could serve similar functions.

Such plans might have been considered too ambitious a few years ago. However, this has changed as the ISS is planned to be decommissioned in 2031. Since it is in the interest of the U.S. to maintain human presence in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the U.S. is turning to the private sector to build and operate several smaller space stations in LEO, aiming to save millions of U.S. dollars and allowing NASA and other federal agencies to focus on human exploration missions beyond Earth’s orbit, without losing the presence in LEO.

What can the experience with operating a space station tell us about the future of commercial space stations? The main question is the following: do commercial stations have the prospect to create sustainable demand and eventually become profitable? What activities are seen as most promising for generating revenue for the operators of such commercial space stations?