Axiom hires Redwire to build the solar panels for its first station module
Axiom’s assembly sequence for its planned station, initially attached to ISS but subsequently detached
The space station startup Axiom today announced that it has signed an agreement with the space hardware company Redwire to build the solar panels for its first station module, now under construction.
The companies announced Sept. 25 that Redwire will provide a version of its Roll-Out Solar Array, or ROSA, to Axiom for use on Axiom Station’s Payload Power Thermal Module, known as AxPPTM. AxPPTM is the first module Axiom plans to launch for its commercial station. Under a revised assembly schedule announced last December, AxPPTM will berth with one of two ports on the International Space Station used by Cygnus cargo spacecraft.
It would remain there until Axiom launches a second module, called Hab1. At that point, AxPPTM would unberth from the ISS and dock with Hab1, forming the initial station that can support four-person crews. Axiom would later add more modules.
At present Axiom is targeting a 2026 launch of the AxPPTM module. The hull, built by Thales Alenia, is presently being tested in Europe, and is expected to shipped to Houston for integration later this year.
The four commercial stations under development, ranked by me based on their present level of progress:
- Haven-1, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company is moving fast, with Haven-1 to launch in 2026 for a three-year period during which it will be occupied by four 2-week-long manned missions. Initially the company hoped flying actual hardware and manned missions would put it in the lead to win NASA’s phase 2 contract to build its much larger mult-module Haven-2 station. Now it is in an even better position to win one of the smaller development contracts NASA intends to issue.
- Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched four tourist flights to ISS, with the fourth carrying government passengers from India, Hungary, and Poland. Though there have been rumors it has cash flow issues, development of its first module has been proceeding more or less as planned, with hull completed and presently undergoing testing and a contract for its solar panels issued to Redwire.
- Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, with extensive partnership agreements with the European Space Agency and others. Its station design has been approved by NASA, but it has built nothing. The deal with Vivace however suggests some construction is about to move forward, especially because the company has raised $383 million in a public stock offering in addition to the $217.5 million provided by NASA.
- Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Overall, Blue Origin has built almost nothing, while Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, and appears ready to start building its module for launch.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Axiom’s assembly sequence for its planned station, initially attached to ISS but subsequently detached
The space station startup Axiom today announced that it has signed an agreement with the space hardware company Redwire to build the solar panels for its first station module, now under construction.
The companies announced Sept. 25 that Redwire will provide a version of its Roll-Out Solar Array, or ROSA, to Axiom for use on Axiom Station’s Payload Power Thermal Module, known as AxPPTM. AxPPTM is the first module Axiom plans to launch for its commercial station. Under a revised assembly schedule announced last December, AxPPTM will berth with one of two ports on the International Space Station used by Cygnus cargo spacecraft.
It would remain there until Axiom launches a second module, called Hab1. At that point, AxPPTM would unberth from the ISS and dock with Hab1, forming the initial station that can support four-person crews. Axiom would later add more modules.
At present Axiom is targeting a 2026 launch of the AxPPTM module. The hull, built by Thales Alenia, is presently being tested in Europe, and is expected to shipped to Houston for integration later this year.
The four commercial stations under development, ranked by me based on their present level of progress:
- Haven-1, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company is moving fast, with Haven-1 to launch in 2026 for a three-year period during which it will be occupied by four 2-week-long manned missions. Initially the company hoped flying actual hardware and manned missions would put it in the lead to win NASA’s phase 2 contract to build its much larger mult-module Haven-2 station. Now it is in an even better position to win one of the smaller development contracts NASA intends to issue.
- Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched four tourist flights to ISS, with the fourth carrying government passengers from India, Hungary, and Poland. Though there have been rumors it has cash flow issues, development of its first module has been proceeding more or less as planned, with hull completed and presently undergoing testing and a contract for its solar panels issued to Redwire.
- Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, with extensive partnership agreements with the European Space Agency and others. Its station design has been approved by NASA, but it has built nothing. The deal with Vivace however suggests some construction is about to move forward, especially because the company has raised $383 million in a public stock offering in addition to the $217.5 million provided by NASA.
- Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Overall, Blue Origin has built almost nothing, while Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, and appears ready to start building its module for launch.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Given ISS Program plans to attach the initial Axiom modules to ISS for a time, the obvious question is what (if anything) from ISS goes with Axiom when the rest is detached and deorbited. I can imagine at least some international partner interest in keeping around some of the newer modules, and Axiom interest in the potential additional cash flow.
I seem to recall that the original plan for Axiom’s station was that it be fully assembled while still berthed to ISS and then detached as a fully stand-alone unit. But that, of course, was before Vast came out of nowhere and began nipping at Axiom’s heels. NASA’s concerns about the potential of a life-shortening event befalling ISS prior to its intended and controlled demise might be part of the reason for Axiom’s recent revisions to its assembly order and the far-briefer-and less-extensive-than-previously-intended term of service as an add-on to ISS, but I suspect the sight of Vast coming up fast in the rear view mirror was an even bigger consideration.
That said, the revision to the order of module assembly would seem to present some problems. First, is the actual schedule. How fast can Axiom get all of its needed modules built? Can it have all five on-orbit by the time ISS goes into the drink?
And what sorts of customers and missions can Axiom Station support during its – possibly lengthy – incremental construction? An initial stand-alone station consisting of just the PPTM and a single hab module might do as a strictly tourist destination, but the science stuff will all or mostly go in the last module destined for attachment – whenever that happens. In between times, the addition of the airlock and second hab modules seem to make the station merely a larger tourist destination. It’s hard to see NASA being able to justify sending astronauts to a place where little or no science can be done. The facilities of real interest to NASA will be the last to arrive according to the revised assembly plan.
But the panoramic cupola will also be part of this final module. Not having it on the first hab or the airlock module will compromise the station’s tourist appeal early on.
In short, Axiom seems to be getting in its own way to a fairly considerable degree anent making money. That will be especially true if the final module isn’t ready until well after ISS is decommissioned and evacuated – something that will happen well before ISS is actually de-orbited and splashed. If another station operator – Vast, say – already had even a Haven 1 or a single-module Haven 2 in service that could support science work before the lights in ISS were turned off, it would have a significant first-mover advantage over a later arrival.