NASA's partnerships with commercial industry have seen success so far. Keeping in mind the same, NASA has selected 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP).

The move has been taken with a motive to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites.

As a part of these public-private partnerships, the selected companies will be a partner with NASA for the development of exploration capabilities.

These capabilities are necessary to enable commercial endeavors in space and human exploration to deep-space destinations, including the proving ground of space around the moon, known as cis-lunar space, and Mars.

William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters, said, "Commercial partners were selected for their technical ability to mature key technologies and their commitment to the potential applications both for government and private sector uses".

With the help of this work, new strategies will come out to move human presence further into the solar system.

The results of these studies and hardware development will be helpful in determining the role for international partner involvement, by fully exploring domestic capabilities, and for Orion and Space Launch Systems missions in cis-lunar space.

The work will also result in the advancement of the system understanding and will define a need for further testing of habitation systems and components on the International Space Station.

NASA's selected companies include, Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas; Aeroject Rocketdyne Inc. of Redmond, Washington; MSNW LLC of Redmond, Washington; Bigelow Aerospace LLC of North Las Vegas, Nevadam; The Boeing Company of Pasadena, Texas; Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama; Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International of Windsor Locks, Connecticut; Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Denver, Colorado; Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia; Orbital Technologies Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin; Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Denver, Colorado and Morehead State University of Morehead, Kentucky.