Following the October news that Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin spaceflight company planned to build its own commercial space station in earth orbit, NASA announced last Thursday that it had selected the program for funding through a Space Law Agreement to further develop station design. The funding is part of NASA’s LEO business development program.
“We are pleased to announce that NASA supports the development of Orbital Reef, a revolutionary approach to making Earth orbit more accessible to diverse customers and industries“explained Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of Advanced Development Programs at Blue Origin. The station would be a orbital “mixed-use space business park” that would offer any type of service, as well as cheaper operating prices for industries interested in developing in low gravity “in addition to meeting the needs of the ISS (International Space Station) partners”.
Blue Origin has partnered with Sierra Space on this project; the first focuses on the architecture and infrastructure of the station, from its design and construction to the management of elevator logistics using New Glenn’s heavy launch system, while the latter is tasked with developing the station.