NASA’s commercial station contenders are competing for hardware funding, capital access, and which architecture can hold four crew members in low Earth orbit by 2030. For companies like HX5, the defense and aerospace contractor founded by Margarita Howard, the post-ISS transition raises a different set of questions entirely: who provides the research support, test facility management, and engineering services those stations will need once they’re operational?
The answer to that question won’t be settled until after the prime award, but the procurement logic that shapes it is already visible.
The Timeline
NASA placed Commercial LEO Destinations Phase 2 on formal hold on Jan. 28, 2026, citing a need to align acquisition timelines with revised program requirements, after an earlier April award target already slipped. According to the Ex Terra Journal of Space Commerce, the agency still targets summer 2026 for multiple funded Space Act Agreements, with the acquisition approach having shifted from the previously planned FAR-based contract to a more flexible milestone-based structure. NASA’s stated intent is to select multiple awardees to reduce the risk of a single-source post-ISS capability gap.
The budget backing that intent is substantial. Congress delivered a $27.53 billion NASA appropriation for FY2026, rejecting an administration proposal to cut the agency by 24%, and secured $273 million specifically for Commercial LEO Destinations. The Phase 2 framework contemplates agreements running up to five years, with milestones including critical design review readiness and crewed demonstrations.
What Station Operators Will Need to Buy
There are four serious commercial station candidates: Axiom Space, which has pressurized module hardware in fabrication at Thales Alenia Space in Turin; Vast, which entered Haven-1 into integration in Long Beach after a $500 million capital raise; Starlab, backed by Voyager Space and Airbus; and Orbital Reef, the Blue Origin–Sierra Space partnership. These companies are competing for the Phase 2 award, the right to become NASA’s anchor commercial LEO customer.
The procurement picture below that layer is less crowded and differently structured. A commercially operated station requires the same support categories the ISS has always required: engineering and research services, test facility operations and maintenance, systems engineering, and mission operations. What changes is the ownership model. Commercial operators, optimized for capital efficiency and multi-customer revenue, will procure those services on the open market. The contract vehicle is a service agreement, evaluated against competing statements of work rather than managed through a government program office.
The services HX5 already delivers at NASA sites correspond closely to what that ecosystem will need. The Glenn Engineering and Research Support contract, awarded to HX5 at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, covers engineering, research and scientific support across power, propulsion, materials and structures, and space or gravity-dependent combustion and fluid systems research.
“We have won some, for our size company, very large prime contracts,” Howard notes.
HX5’s Position as the Commercial Station Era Approaches
HX5 operates across approximately 70 government locations in more than 20 states, with a workforce of about 1,000 employees, more than 30% of whom are veterans.
“The motivation for focusing more on NASA was generated through our past performance work,” Howard says. “We were attractive to a large business, and they approached us about teaming with them on a NASA contract. Once we started our first NASA contract, we could build expertise on more NASA work.”
Broader DoD alignment reinforces that positioning. Space Force formalized a commercial-first acquisition approach in April 2025, following a White House executive order directing “first preference for commercial solutions” across defense programs. The convergence of DoD and NASA commercial frameworks means contractors that built engineering and research support capabilities against military requirements are working in an environment where those credentials carry over. HX5’s record at defense R&D sites preceded its NASA presence; the company built its contracting identity in defense environments before extending into space agency work.
Recruiting the skilled technicians, engineers and cleared professionals required for government research and test programs remains a persistent constraint across the aerospace and defense sector. HX5 Sierra’s apprenticeship program has graduated around 30 skilled technicians, and the company has partnered with trade schools including Polaris Career Center and Davis Aerospace & Maritime High School to strengthen its workforce pipeline. Those efforts address challenges visible across the broader defense industrial base: an aging technical workforce, flat budgets, high demand for STEM talent, and the added hiring friction created when roles require security-clearance eligibility or prior cleared experience.
“Our focus is professional support services in research and development and in specialty areas, primarily the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math,” Howard says. “Across the DoD and NASA, those are the specialties that make up our primary workforce. They have to have advanced education.”
Competing for that workforce against commercial technology employers is a standing challenge. “You have to get up in the morning and be excited about the particular program you’re supporting,” Howard says. “Let’s get to the moon, let’s accomplish this mission overseas.”
For HX5 and Margarita Howard, the move into NASA work has extended a contracting identity built over two decades in defense environments. When the ISS is deorbited and the commercial station era begins, the companies positioned to provide support services at scale will be those with cleared workforce depth, past performance at NASA centers, and established contract vehicles. That work was already underway.
