You’ve probably heard about plans to use the massive new Starship vehicle to land people on the Moon and Mars, to send numerous Starlink satellites and large telescopes into space, or perhaps to serve as a high-speed point-to-point ground transport of equipment and people.
SpaceX’s Starship architecture has another application the company is researching, with NASA joining in to provide its expertise. While still in the early stages of technology development, the effort could result in Starship being repurposed into a commercial space station, and NASA is keenly interested in it because there are no plans to build a government-owned laboratory in low-Earth orbit after the International Space Station is decommissioned after 2030.
of The space agency announced last month New agreements with seven commercial companies, including SpaceX. The Collaboration for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC) program is an initiative established to facilitate private sector development of emerging products and services that may be available to customers, including NASA, in about five to seven years.
This is separate from a funding agreement NASA signed in 2021 with three industry teams led by Nanoracks, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, each working on their own concept of a commercial space station. Another company, Axiom Space, has a contract with NASA to develop a commercial module that will be added to the International Space Station, with the ultimate goal of using it as the centerpiece of a privately-owned complex in low-Earth orbit.
NASA has passed on SpaceX’s bid for a 2021-funded space station development contract, revealing concerns over SpaceX’s plans to expand life support systems to enable long-term missions and a single docking port, among other things. While the space agency is not funding new CCSC efforts, including the Starship Space Station concept, the government will support the industry with technical expertise such as expert assessments, lessons learned, techniques and data.
NASA has announced that it will provide non-financial support to Blue Origin’s efforts to develop a manned spacecraft for orbital missions to be launched on the company’s New Glen rocket, separate from the SpaceX deal. The agency is also supporting the development of a human-led research platform in low-Earth orbit, parallel to Northrop Grumman’s planned space station.
Other companies selected by NASA for unfunded contracts were Sierra Space’s proposal for a manned version of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, Vast’s concept for a privately-owned space station, Think Orbital’s plans to develop welding, cutting, inspection and additive manufacturing technologies for space construction operations, and Special Aerospace Services to collaborate on autonomous flight units that could assist or potentially replace spacewalkers working outside the space station.
Despite NASA’s lack of funding, the announcement of a new collaboration with SpaceX signaled, at least broadly, one of the directions SpaceX wants Starship to take. NASA said it will work with SpaceX on an “integrated low-Earth orbit architecture” that includes the Starship spacecraft and other SpaceX programs, including the Dragon crew capsule and the Starlink Broadband Network.
“This architecture includes Starship as a transport and low-orbit destination element supported by Super Heavy, Dragon, and Starlink, as well as constituent functions including crew and cargo transport, communications, operations and ground support,” NASA said.
early days
SpaceX’s Starship program is largely driven by billions of dollars in private funding. The rocket, which was ultimately designed to be fully and quickly reusable, has a 33-engine booster stage called the SuperHeavy and an upper stage (known simply as Starship) that accelerates into orbit. Once in space, Starship can deploy payloads of up to 150 tons or can be refueled from tanker vehicles, also based on Starship design, for expeditions to more distant destinations such as the Moon and Mars.
The Starship is made of stainless steel and is approximately 164 feet (50 meters) high, 29.5 feet (9 meters) in diameter, and wider than the fuselage of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Before SpaceX can move on to demonstrating in-orbit refueling, the lunar lander Starship, or her future Starship-based space station, the company needs to get its rocket into orbit. The first full-scale test flight in April did not reach space, but SpaceX officials are pleased with the lessons learned and are preparing another test flight later this year to try to reach near-orbital speed.