Christine Thropp
An industry team led by Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada Corp.‘s space-focused business has wrapped up a system definition review with NASA for a commercial space station envisioned for low-Earth orbit operations.
The companies said Monday the design of Orbital Reef is now being developed following the completion of SDR, which examined the proposed space station architecture’s compliance with functional and performance requirements.
The review was performed in June and July, with participants from NASA, Blue Origin, Sierra Space and other team members.
The development of Orbital Reef is aimed at providing new market opportunities in space for commercial, research, industrial and international customers. Space transportation and logistics, orbit habitation as well as equipment accommodation and operations are some of the services being considered for the space station.
The Orbital Reef team includes Amazon Supply Chain, Amazon Web Services, Arizona State University, Boeing, Genesis Engineering Solutions and Redwire Space. They are collaborating with NASA under the Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development program.
In December 2021, the space agency signed an agreement to focus research and exploration activities on potential commercial space stations in LEO.
