Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin has announced that it has more ambitious plans than simple space tourism. They are working on the creation of their own commercial space station called Orbital Reef, which aims to be an industrial and commercial center with a view to starting operations from 2026.
Orbital Reef will be developed, owned and operated in association with Sierra Space, a subsidiary of the Sierra Nevada corporation. Sierra Space is known for the Dream Chaser, a spacecraft that will begin operating in 2022 and will carry cargo to the International Space Station. Orbital Reef is also supported by Boeing, Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University. They hope to use Boeing's Starliner and Sierra Space's Dream Chaser to transport cargo and passengers to Orbital Reef.
Blue Origin wants space stations for commercial purposes
In a press release, Blue Origin said that with Orbital Reef they will offer research, industrial, international and commercial customers the cost-competitive end-to-end services they need, including space transportation and logistics, space habitation, equipment hosting and operations including onboard crew. They claim that anyone who wants to set their own direction in orbit can do so.
Orbital Reef expects to be habitable for up to 10 people thanks to the fact that it will feature a human-centered spatial architecture with services and amenities. There will be several ports to visit the spaceships and modules. It will have an open system that will allow any customer or nation to use it. They hope to increase the capacities of public facilities and services as demand increases.
One of the main problems of space tourism is the need for scale and investors who want to make it possible so that it is possible to reduce costs. Blue Origin hopes to achieve this with the commercial-purpose space station Orbital Reef to normalize spaceflight as they will create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in low Earth orbit that spawns new discoveries, new products, new entertainment and more.
Source: Engadget
