Enlarge / Artist's rendering of a Starship vehicle in low Earth orbit.
You've probably heard of SpaceX's plans to use its giant new Starship vehicle to land people on the Moon and Mars, send numerous Starlink satellites or large telescopes into space, or perhaps even serve as high-speed point-to-point ground transportation for equipment or people.
There is another application for SpaceX's Starship architecture that the company is investigating, and NASA is on board to lend its expertise. Although still in a nascent stage of technology development, the effort could result in Starship being repurposed as a commercial space station, which is of great interest to NASA as there are no plans to establish a government-owned research lab in low Earth orbit following the dismantling of the International Space Station after 2030.
The space agency last month announced a new round of deals with seven commercial companies, including SpaceX. The Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC) program is an established effort to advance private sector development of emerging products and services that may be available to customers, including NASA, in approximately five to seven years.
This is separate from funding agreements NASA signed in 2021 with three industrial teams led by Nanoracks, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, each working on their own commercial space station concept. Another company, Axiom Space, has a contract with NASA to develop a commercial module to add to the International Space Station, with the goal of eventually using it as the centerpiece of a private complex in low Earth orbit.
NASA ignored SpaceX's offer for a funded space station development deal in 2021, identifying concerns about SpaceX's plans to evolve its life support system to enable long-duration missions and SpaceX's plan for a single docking port, among other issues. The space agency is not providing funding for the new CCSC effort, which includes the Starship space station concept, but the government will support industry with technical expertise, including expert assessments, lessons learned, technologies and data.
In addition to the SpaceX deal, NASA said it would provide non-financial support for Blue Origin's initiative to develop a crewed spacecraft for orbital missions that would launch on the company's New Glenn rocket. The agency is also supporting Northrop Grumman's development of a human-powered research platform in low Earth orbit to work alongside the company's planned space station.
Other companies NASA picked for unfunded deals included: Sierra Space's proposal for a crewed version of its Dream Chaser spacecraft, Vast's concept for a private space station, ThinkOrbital's plan to develop welding, cutting, inspection and additive manufacturing technology for construction work in space, and Special Aerospace Services for a collaboration on an autonomous maneuvering unit to assist, or possibly replace, spacewalkers working outside a station spatial.
Despite NASA's lack of funding, the announcement of the new SpaceX collaboration defined - in broad strokes, at least - one of the directions SpaceX might want to take Starship. NASA said it will work with SpaceX on an "integrated low Earth orbit architecture" that includes the Starship vehicle and other SpaceX programs, including the Dragon crew capsule and the Starlink broadband network.
"This architecture includes Starship as a transport and destination element in low Earth orbit supported by Super Heavy, Dragon, and Starlink, as well as constituent capabilities such as crew and cargo transport, communications, and operational and ground support," NASA said.
The first days again
SpaceX's Starship program is progressing primarily through billions of dollars in private funding. The rocket is designed to eventually be fully and rapidly reusable, with a 33-engine booster stage called Super Heavy and an upper stage – itself known simply as Starship – to accelerate into orbit. Once in space, the Starship could deploy a payload of up to 150 metric tons or be refueled by a tank vehicle, also based on t...
Enlarge / Artist's rendering of a Starship vehicle in low Earth orbit.
You've probably heard of SpaceX's plans to use its giant new Starship vehicle to land people on the Moon and Mars, send numerous Starlink satellites or large telescopes into space, or perhaps even serve as high-speed point-to-point ground transportation for equipment or people.
There is another application for SpaceX's Starship architecture that the company is investigating, and NASA is on board to lend its expertise. Although still in a nascent stage of technology development, the effort could result in Starship being repurposed as a commercial space station, which is of great interest to NASA as there are no plans to establish a government-owned research lab in low Earth orbit following the dismantling of the International Space Station after 2030.
The space agency last month announced a new round of deals with seven commercial companies, including SpaceX. The Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC) program is an established effort to advance private sector development of emerging products and services that may be available to customers, including NASA, in approximately five to seven years.
This is separate from funding agreements NASA signed in 2021 with three industrial teams led by Nanoracks, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, each working on their own commercial space station concept. Another company, Axiom Space, has a contract with NASA to develop a commercial module to add to the International Space Station, with the goal of eventually using it as the centerpiece of a private complex in low Earth orbit.
NASA ignored SpaceX's offer for a funded space station development deal in 2021, identifying concerns about SpaceX's plans to evolve its life support system to enable long-duration missions and SpaceX's plan for a single docking port, among other issues. The space agency is not providing funding for the new CCSC effort, which includes the Starship space station concept, but the government will support industry with technical expertise, including expert assessments, lessons learned, technologies and data.
In addition to the SpaceX deal, NASA said it would provide non-financial support for Blue Origin's initiative to develop a crewed spacecraft for orbital missions that would launch on the company's New Glenn rocket. The agency is also supporting Northrop Grumman's development of a human-powered research platform in low Earth orbit to work alongside the company's planned space station.
Other companies NASA picked for unfunded deals included: Sierra Space's proposal for a crewed version of its Dream Chaser spacecraft, Vast's concept for a private space station, ThinkOrbital's plan to develop welding, cutting, inspection and additive manufacturing technology for construction work in space, and Special Aerospace Services for a collaboration on an autonomous maneuvering unit to assist, or possibly replace, spacewalkers working outside a station spatial.
Despite NASA's lack of funding, the announcement of the new SpaceX collaboration defined - in broad strokes, at least - one of the directions SpaceX might want to take Starship. NASA said it will work with SpaceX on an "integrated low Earth orbit architecture" that includes the Starship vehicle and other SpaceX programs, including the Dragon crew capsule and the Starlink broadband network.
"This architecture includes Starship as a transport and destination element in low Earth orbit supported by Super Heavy, Dragon, and Starlink, as well as constituent capabilities such as crew and cargo transport, communications, and operational and ground support," NASA said.
The first days again
SpaceX's Starship program is progressing primarily through billions of dollars in private funding. The rocket is designed to eventually be fully and rapidly reusable, with a 33-engine booster stage called Super Heavy and an upper stage – itself known simply as Starship – to accelerate into orbit. Once in space, the Starship could deploy a payload of up to 150 metric tons or be refueled by a tank vehicle, also based on t...
Enlarge / Artist's rendering of a Starship vehicle in low Earth orbit.
