NASA has announced partnerships with seven companies, including Blue Origin and SpaceX, to support the development of new commercial capabilities, such as crewed spacecraft and space stations, SpaceNews reports.

Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2: The partnerships are part of NASA’s Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2 (CCSC-2) initiative. Under the initiative, NASA will provide technical expertise, assessments, and data to assist the companies in developing new capabilities. However, no funding will be provided to the companies.

Blue Origin’s Crewed Spacecraft: Blue Origin will use the agreement to work on an integrated commercial space transportation capability for safe, affordable, and high-frequency U.S. access to orbit for crew and other missions. This suggests that Blue Origin is working on a crewed spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Low Earth Orbit Architecture: SpaceX received a CCSC-2 agreement to work on an integrated low Earth orbit architecture involving both its Dragon and Starship vehicles. The architecture includes Starship as a transportation and in-space low-Earth orbit destination element supported by Super Heavy, Dragon, and Starlink.