{"id":17468,"date":"2021-10-26T00:12:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T16:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-teams-up-with-sierra-space-boeing-and-others-on-orbital-reef-space-station-project\/"},"modified":"2021-10-26T00:12:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T16:12:46","slug":"blue-origin-teams-up-with-sierra-space-boeing-and-others-on-orbital-reef-space-station-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-teams-up-with-sierra-space-boeing-and-others-on-orbital-reef-space-station-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin teams up with Sierra Space, Boeing and others on \u2018Orbital Reef\u2019 space station project"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_650907\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-650907\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-650907\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211025-orbitalreef2-630x295.jpg\" alt=\"Orbital Reef\" width=\"630\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211025-orbitalreef2-630x295.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211025-orbitalreef2-1260x591.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211025-orbitalreef2-768x360.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211025-orbitalreef2-1536x720.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211025-orbitalreef2.jpg 1744w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-650907\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows a Boeing Starliner capsule at the Orbital Reef station. (Orbital Reef Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is joining forces with Colorado-based Sierra Space and a host of other partners, including Boeing, to propose building a space-based \u201cmixed-use business park\u201d called Orbital Reef.<\/p>\n<p>The plan, announced today at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai, is among about a dozen proposals being submitted to NASA for a share of development funds under a program that\u2019s aimed at preparing the way for replacing the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p>If Blue Origin and its partners follow through on the plan, the basic version of Orbital Reef would be in low Earth orbit sometime during the latter half of the 2020s \u2014 in time for an orderly transition from ISS operations. That version would include power-generating capability, a core module with picture windows looking down on Earth, an inflatable habitat provided by Sierra Space and a Boeing-built science lab.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin\u2019s senior vice president of advanced development programs, Brent Sherwood, told GeekWire that Orbital Reef would cost \u201cat least an order of magnitude less\u201d than the International Space Station. The development cost for the International Space Station is typically estimated at $100 billion, which would imply a cost in the range of $10 billion for Orbital Reef.<\/p>\n<p>Sherwood declined to say how much each of the partners would be willing to pay toward development, but Sierra Space President Janet Kavandi noted that her company has already put $1 billion into the development of a Dream Chaser space plane capable of ferrying crew to and from Orbital Reef. (An uncrewed version of the Dream Chaser is due to start delivering cargo to the International Space Station within the next year or so.)<\/p>\n<p>Other partners in Orbital Reef include Redwire, which specializes in on-orbit manufacturing; Genesis Engineering Solutions, which would build a \u201csingle-person spacecraft\u201d for extravehicular activities; and Arizona State University, which will lead a global research consortium.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Announcing Orbital Reef - Your Address in Orbit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SC3ooNXfcGE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sherwood said Orbital Reef could serve as a base for activities ranging from research to manufacturing, media projects and space tourism. Mike Gold, Redwire\u2019s executive vice president for civil space business development and external affairs, emphasized that the proposed station will be designed to be expandable over time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike real reefs, the Orbital Reef will touch many, many countries throughout the world,\u201d Gold said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t an American station. This will be a global station that will carry on the proud international legacy of the ISS.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA is due to distribute up to $400 million to as few as two and as many as four industry teams to work on the initial stages of development for new orbital destinations \u2014 but it\u2019s not guaranteed that Orbital Reef will be chosen.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the spacecraft that would be used to build and service Orbital Reef \u2014 ranging from Sierra Space\u2019s Dream Chaser and Boeing\u2019s Starliner crew capsule to Blue Origin\u2019s orbital-class New Glenn rocket \u2014 are still under development and behind schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Orbital Reef is chosen for the first round of funding, there\u2019s no guarantee that it\u2019ll will win full funding from NASA as an anchor tenant in the late 2020s. A different industry team led by Blue Origin found that out earlier this year when it lost out to SpaceX in a competition for lunar lander funding \u2014 an award that\u2019s currently the subject of a legal dispute.<\/p>\n<p>Among the other teams proposing space station concepts are Axiom Space and a consortium including Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin. Axiom Space has already won NASA\u2019s go-ahead to build a commercial habitat for the International Space Station that could become part of a new orbital outpost when the time is right.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a chance that SpaceX could proposed modified versions of its Starship spaceship or Dragon XL cargo carrier as elements for an outpost in low Earth orbit, just as it proposed a Starship lunar lander.<\/p>\n<p>NASA is due to make its initial selections for funding next year.<\/p>\n<p>Would the Orbital Reef partners proceed without NASA funding? Sierra Space\u2019s Kavandi, for one, was clear about that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur company is very dedicated to making this happen, with or without additional funding,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have committed to Blue Origin to be principal partners, and we are committed to making this happen regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows a Boeing Starliner capsule at the Orbital Reef station. (Orbital Reef Illustration) Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is joining forces with Colorado-based Sierra Space and a host of other partners, including Boeing, to propose building a space-based \u201cmixed-use business park\u201d called Orbital Reef. The plan, announced today at the International [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,670,717,190,4386,4697,4703,971,4491],"class_list":["post-17468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-boeing","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-orbital-reef","tag-redwire","tag-sierra-nevada-corp","tag-sierra-space","tag-space-outposts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}