Irene Klotz Bezos’ space company takes a community approach to build and operate a new space station.
Irene Klotz
The baseline plan for the Orbital Reef, slated to begin operations later this decade, is about one-third of the size pictured in this artist's rendering. Credit: Blue Origin/Sierra Space
There may be many heirs to the International Space Station, which is about two-thirds through its estimated life span. NASA, among others, is counting on having one or more commercially operated outposts available to host its microgravity research programs and to mature technologies needed to sustain life off Earth.
Among the offerings is an International Space Station (ISS)-class development called the Orbital Reef, which is targeted to begin operations later this decade. The project is spearheaded by—but not exclusive to—Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin. Instead, the billionaire founder of Amazon turned to established aerospace manufacturers and operators Sierra Space and Boeing, as well as more recent industry entrants, such as Redwire Space, to help cultivate the Reef into reality. The project was unveiled at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress in Dubai.
Privately owned Sierra Space, a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corp., had planned to proffer a solo proposal for NASA’s ongoing Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destinations program, intended to provide seed funding for up to four commercial space station projects with the hope that one or more will come to fruition before the ISS is retired. “What we determined is that working together allows us to merge our capabilities,” says Sierra Space President Janet Kavandi. “We have very complimentary capabilities.”
“The goal is not to just build another station, but to build a better station,” adds Mike Gold, executive vice president for civil space and external affairs at Redwire.
To begin, the Orbital Reef will consist of six modules in LEO and four different transportation services. Blue Origin is developing the first two modules—an energy mast, which contains arrays, radiators, control moment gyroscopes and a propulsion system; and the core module, which will contain the environmental control and life-support systems to support a live-aboard crew of 10.
The energy mast includes a doughnut-shaped structure that has three docking ports, two of which are pressurized, and one unpressurized parking berth. Attached to the core module will be Sierra Space’s 27-ft.-dia. inflatable habitat called LIFE (large integrated flexible environment), which has been in development for several years. Attached to the module is a node with two docking ports.
The fifth orbital element is a science laboratory, which will be one of Boeing’s contributions to the Reef. Boeing is NASA’s prime contractor for the ISS.
“One of the areas where we add a lot of value to the team is bringing in the experience and the lessons learned from the ISS,” says John Mulholland, Boeing vice president and ISS program manager. “For the Orbital Reef, one of the first things we looked at was how [to] create a science module that we don’t have to pick and choose what capabilities NASA wants. Instead, let’s figure out how we apply every science capability that the ISS already has.”
Boeing plans to outfit its lab with all the equipment needed to host experiments ongoing and planned for the ISS, which is expected to remain operational for about another decade. NASA wants to begin transitioning its ISS research programs to commercial platforms while the station is still operational.
Significant budget increases to support commercial space station development, however, are not expected to begin until the mid-2020s.
“You can’t start in the middle of the decade and have a station ready to be operating so you can overlap . . . with the ISS if it’s retired in 2030,” says Brent Sherwood, Blue Origin vice president of Advanced Development Programs. “So we are proceeding into full-scale development at this time in order to meet the schedule of the second half of this decade for operational capability.”
The sixth module in the Reef’s baseline configuration is a novel one-person spacecraft known as the Single-Person Spacecraft (SPS), which was designed by Brand Griffin, program manager at Genesis Engineering Solutions. The SPS is intended for extravehicular activities (EVA) without a spacesuit. Griffin has been fascinated with the idea of an SPS for decades, notes Sherwood, who worked with Griffin at Boeing early in their careers.
“When we started creating Orbital Reef, I reached out to Brand and I said: ‘Hey, are you still working on the SPS because we need something that’s transformational for EVA,’” Sherwood tells Aviation Week. “The answer was ‘yes,’ and he sent me this package . . . showing all this testing, and that was that.”
“In a world where there is tourism in orbit,” Sherwood continues, “like on a cruise, you may want to go on an excursion. So one of the excursions you want to sell to somebody who is on a tour is to go outside. But what are you going to do? Are you going to have a 4-hr. prebreathe protocol and put on a spacesuit that doesn’t fit you and you can’t scratch your nose? And have an airlock and all the risk?
“I think it might be better to put somebody in an SPS, which can be completely controlled—all the guidance, propulsion, everything—by computer,” says Sherwood. “Think of SPS as a tourist-proof way of doing EVA excursions, in addition to all of the efficiencies for operating on the station.”
Training to use the SPS is more like earning a private pilot’s license, which requires 40 hr. of flight time, as opposed to spending 244 hr. in a neutral buoyancy lab to train for an EVA in a spacesuit, Griffin tells Aviation Week. “Plus, to do effective training for a suit, you have to have this big pool, support divers, safety divers and a control station. And you have to maintain this facility and have suits and physical hardware,” Griffin says.
“We plan to train in flight simulators. That’s what they do with aircraft and spacecraft,” he adds. “We can do off-nominal training with no risk to the operator, and in some cases that’s hard to do in a neutral buoyancy lab.”
For transportation services, the Orbital Reef will rely on Blue Origin’s New Glenn, a heavy-lift reusable orbital launch system in development. Shuttle services for crew and cargo will be provided by Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, launching aboard the New Glenn and possibly other boosters.
Both systems have been purchased by NASA for flight services to the ISS, with United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket providing the rides to orbit. The Dream Chaser has seven ISS cargo resupply missions on its manifest, with the first expected in late 2022 or early 2023. The Starliner, which has made one uncrewed orbital flight test, is slated for a second test run in early 2022, followed by a crewed flight test later next year. Crew ferry flights would follow, most likely in 2023. The Dream Chaser originally was designed to carry people, and Boeing once bid the Starliner to fly cargo, so both systems are adaptable to crew and cargo missions.
“If one launch provider goes down, there may be another launch provider,” says Sierra Space’s Kavandi. “If one spacecraft is temporarily down, we have a second spacecraft. If one module isn’t able to support people for a period of time, then the other module can. We have a lot of backup capabilities so that we’re never really locked out of getting to this space station or operating while we’re on the space station.”
The Reef’s fourth transport is a Blue Origin-developed in-space tug, designed to retrieve canisters and cargo in orbit and bring them to the station. “I can launch a resupply mission on New Glenn—gases, water, etc.—in some canister or payload container, which can either be a full spacecraft, like a [Northrop Grumman] Cygnus, or I can make a dumb container if I have a tug that is based at Orbital Reef and just go pick it up,” says Sherwood. “The tug provides more optionality.”
The tug also could be useful to salvage equipment from the ISS after it is decommissioned but before its removal from orbit. For that reason, the Orbital Reef will be located at 51.6 deg. inclination relative to the equator, the same orbit as the ISS.
“Because of our team, we already know what is worthwhile on the station . . . from an infrastructure and equipment standpoint,” says Sherwood. “Being in a compatible orbit just makes it possible.”
Much as it does with the ISS, Boeing will oversee Orbital Reef operations and maintenance. Redwire, which acquired the in-space manufacturing company Made In Space, will focus on microgravity research, development and manufacturing, payload operations and deployable systems. Also part of the Reef project is Arizona State University, which is leading an international consortium of 14 universities to build and support new communities of space researchers.
While declining to discuss details of how much Blue Origin and its partners plan to spend on the project, Sherwood notes that it will be at least an order of magnitude less than the $100 billion price tag for the ISS.
“Our team is vertically integrated,” he adds. “We can provide every aspect of what’s needed at whatever level customers need. And this is open vertical integration, meaning that we welcome competing services as well.”
Blue Origin envisions the Reef as an orbital equivalent to a mixed-use business park with shared infrastructure that supports the proprietary needs of a diverse group of tenants and visitors. Initially, Blue Origin is eyeing three markets: current and aspiring government entities; a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, media, entertainment and space operations; and private space travel. “To get to millions of people living and working in space, we first need thousands,” says Sherwood. “And before that, hundreds. It starts with dozens.”
The unveiling of the Orbital Reef follows the Oct. 21 announcement of a collaboration by Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin on a four-person orbital outpost called the Starlab, with initial operational capability expected by 2027.
The Starlab will include a large inflatable habitat, designed and built by Lockheed Martin; a laboratory equipped for science experiments, manufacturing and research programs; a power and propulsion element; a docking node; and a large robotic arm for servicing cargo and payloads.
In addition to serving NASA and other government agencies, the Starlab is intended to support tourism and other commercial activities.
Voyager Space—the majority shareholder of Nanoracks—is involved in the project, too, responsible for strategy and capital investment.
Also in develoment are projects by Houston-based Axiom Space, which plans to attach a commercial module to the ISS in advance of operating a free-flying station, and Northrop Grumman, which submitted a proposal based on its Cygnus spacecraft, among others.
NASA expects to select 2-4 projects before year-end, with awards totaling $300-400 million.
A single-person spacecraft for unsuited spacewalks is part of Orbital Reef’s baseline configuration. Credit: Genesis Engineering
