Nearly two years ago, NASA placed its bets to develop commercial space stations on four companies—Blue Origin, Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman, and Axiom Space. Now, as the US space agency looks to find a successor to the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit, this landscape is shifting dramatically.
At the International Astronautical Congress meeting this week in Azerbaijan, sources report that there is widespread speculation that one of these four companies, Northrop Grumman, is dropping out of the competition. Northrop’s plan had been to leverage its successful Cygnus spacecraft design to build a free-flying space station.
However, Northrop no longer plans to do so. Rather, it will join the venture backed by Voyager Space, which is partnering with Europe-based Airbus to develop a commercial space station. It’s likely that Northrop would provide cargo transportation services, with Cygnus as part of the team. Officials from Voyager and Northrop Grumman declined to comment on the change in strategy, which could be announced soon.
Et tu, Blue?
Other changes appear likely with the commercial space station program. Multiple sources have told Ars that Blue Origin, which proposed a lavish station concept called ‘Orbital Reef,’ is hedging on its plans. Sources have indicated that Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos is not particularly interested in a low-Earth orbit space station, preferring instead to focus on the company’s efforts to develop a lunar lander and other Moon infrastructure.
Last week, CNBC reported that Blue Origin and its primary partner on Orbital Reef, Sierra Space, were reevaluating their partnership as it was “on rocky footing.” The publication reports that Blue Origin and Sierra Space will likely go their separate ways, and it’s unclear whether the companies would pursue individual space station efforts.
NASA has a lot riding on these initiatives. The agency plans to operate the International Space Station in conjunction with its partners until 2030, after which time it intends to transition to leasing time on commercial space stations. NASA officials have said repeatedly that they do not want to have a gap in having a place for its astronauts to live and work in orbit around Earth.
