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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →In July 2017, SpaceX executive Tim Hughes urged the U.S. government to extend the public-private partnership approach used for low-Earth-orbit capabilities to deep-space exploration. He described a government-funded, COTS-like effort with NASA setting high-level requirements, running alongside existing plans such as the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion. It was a proposal at a Senate hearing—not evidence that NASA adopted a single program matching it.
What SpaceX asked the government to do
Tim Hughes, then SpaceX’s senior vice president for global business and government affairs, made the case at a July 2017 hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness. His central argument was that methods used to develop low-Earth-orbit capabilities could also be applied to deep-space exploration. As quoted by Futurism on July 14, 2017, Hughes said: “The principles applied in past programs for low Earth orbit capability can and should be applied to deep space exploration.”
Contemporaneous reporting framed the request as federal support for a COTS-like deep-space program. NASA would set broad requirements, while private companies developed capabilities. Hughes presented partnerships as a way to supplement NASA’s existing exploration plans, not replace them. The proposal’s reported parallel track would sit alongside programs including SLS and Orion.
What “COTS-like” meant—and what it did not
The reference was NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which supported private-sector development of low-Earth-orbit transportation capabilities. In a 2017 statement, NASA said it had invested in private industry for more than a decade to develop capabilities and seed commercial innovation. NASA also said its commercial partnerships helped build the U.S. space economy while allowing the agency to focus on next-generation systems for exploration beyond the Moon. That is NASA’s description of its own approach.
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Hughes was advocating an extension of those principles, not claiming that deep-space exploration was the same kind of job as carrying cargo or crew to the International Space Station. The available account describes a proposed model, not a fully specified contract design: it does not set out a complete procurement plan, technical architecture, cost estimate, or allocation of risk for such a program.
How the proposal compares with later NASA partnerships
NASA’s later Human Landing System (HLS) program provides a concrete example of commercial contracting for exploration-related systems. NASA’s NextSTEP-2 H page describes a process under which the agency can award firm-fixed-price, milestone-based proposals for crewed landing-system demonstration work. NASA’s HLS materials report selecting SpaceX to develop the Starship lunar lander.
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| Effort | Mission scope | Funding or contract structure established by the cited sources | How it relates to Hughes’s proposal |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASA COTS | Low-Earth-orbit transportation capabilities | NASA described investing in private industry to develop capabilities and seed commercial innovation; the cited 2017 statement does not provide a comparable contract value here. | The precedent Hughes invoked for adapting partnership principles to deep space. |
| Hughes’s 2017 suggestion | Deep-space exploration, alongside existing plans such as SLS and Orion | Reported as a government-funded, COTS-like program with high-level requirements; a detailed payment, milestone, or risk-sharing blueprint is not established in the cited accounts. | The proposal itself, not a confirmed NASA program. |
| NASA HLS, SpaceX awards listed in NASA’s FY2025 budget justification, published 2024 | Crewed lunar landing systems | NASA listed a $2.89 billion total award value for SpaceX HLS Option A and a $1.15 billion Option B contract modification for an upgraded Starship lunar lander and a second crewed mission. | A later, separate example of milestone-based commercial procurement—not the budget or outcome of Hughes’s proposal. |
The HLS amounts are award values as NASA reported them in its FY2025 budget justification. They should not be read as actual expenditure or as the total cost of HLS. They also do not show that NASA adopted Hughes’s broader deep-space proposal. The HLS contracting mechanism demonstrates that NASA has used milestone-based commercial awards for a specific lunar system; it does not establish a general deep-space partnership program.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is—and is not—established about the proposal’s outcome
The contemporaneous accounts document Hughes’s advocacy at a Senate hearing and describe the broad COTS-like idea. The cited NASA materials establish the earlier commercial-transport precedent and later HLS contracting, but do not show that a single program matching Hughes’s proposed deep-space effort was adopted. Nor do they establish an independent assessment of its likely cost-effectiveness or chances of success.
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