Voyager and its operating company, Nanoracks, were awarded a $160 million Space Act Agreement from NASA in December 2021 to create Starlab, a continuously crewed, free- flying space station to replace the International Space Station. Voyager Space and Airbus have a transatlantic joint venture that will design, build, and operate the Starlab commercial space station. Starlab will ensure a continued human presence in low-Earth orbit and a seamless transition of microgravity science and research from the International Space Station into the new commercial space station era.
Voyager Space is a space technology company dedicated to building a better future for humanity in space and on Earth. With nearly 20 years of spaceflight heritage and over 1500 successful missions as of Fall 2022, Voyager delivers space station infrastructure and services and technology solutions to commercial users, civil and national security government agencies, academic and research institutions, and more, with the goal to accelerate a sustainable space economy.
Launch vehicle secured! 🚀 Alongside @VoyagerSH + @AirbusSpace, we are thrilled to announce we have selected @SpaceX’s Starship to launch #Starlab into #LEO. Learn more about this historic launch here: https://t.co/AQ13lSxbu3 pic.twitter.com/BNq47IRabd
— Starlab (@Starlab_Space) January 31, 2024
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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They’re going to build and launch this within 3 years? Remembering the contract was issued in 2021 in the throes of COVID where almost nothing got done. 2025? I don’t think so.
They’re major firms with relevant experience, and they’re not dealing with Nasa, so, yeah, it’s feasible, if Starship is ready to provide the launch.
With Starship’s relaxed payload size and weight constraints, you should get used to faster schedules: Everything doesn’t have to be ultra-light bespoke hardware, it becomes feasible to use off the shelf stuff and build to more relaxed tolerances with better margins. That’s going to speed things up a lot.
I like the fact that one of the sections can rotate fast enough to simulate Martian gravity. We’ve desperately needed to do partial gravity testing in orbit.
IMO the diameter is a bit small for that level of acceleration, the astronauts are going to have to overcome a certain tendency towards motion sickness, but I expect they’ll get over it.