China’s Tiangong Space Station will still be going strong. Space agency leaders have long recognized this and nearly half a decade ago awarded about $500 million to four different companies to begin working on “commercial” space stations to fill the void. On Monday, in one of his first official tasks, NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy signed a new “directive” on commercial space stations that seeks to address this concern. The president’s budget request included $272.3 million in fiscal year 2026 and $2.1 billion over the next five years for the development and deployment of new commercial space stations. At least 25 percent of milestone funding will be withheld until after a successful in-space crewed demonstration of a space station.