Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin to partner in building commercial space station
Capitalism in space: The companies Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin have announced that they have formed a partnership to build their own private commercial space station, dubbed Starlab.
Nanoracks, its majority owner Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin, will collaborate on the development of a commercial space station as others in industry warn of a potential space station gap.
Nanoracks said Oct. 21 that it was partnering with Lockheed Martin and Voyager Space on a commercial space station called Starlab. Nanoracks will be the prime contractor with Voyager handling strategy and investment and Lockheed serving as the manufacturer and technical integrator.
Starlab would consist of a docking node with an inflatable module attached to one side and a spacecraft bus, providing power and propulsion, attached to the other side. Starlab will have a volume of 340 cubic meters, about three-eighths that of the International Space Station, and generate 60 kilowatts of power. Starlab will be equipped with a robotic arm and “state-of-the-art” lab, and be able to host four astronauts at a time.
They are aiming for a 2027 launch.
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Capitalism in space: The companies Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin have announced that they have formed a partnership to build their own private commercial space station, dubbed Starlab.
Nanoracks, its majority owner Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin, will collaborate on the development of a commercial space station as others in industry warn of a potential space station gap.
Nanoracks said Oct. 21 that it was partnering with Lockheed Martin and Voyager Space on a commercial space station called Starlab. Nanoracks will be the prime contractor with Voyager handling strategy and investment and Lockheed serving as the manufacturer and technical integrator.
Starlab would consist of a docking node with an inflatable module attached to one side and a spacecraft bus, providing power and propulsion, attached to the other side. Starlab will have a volume of 340 cubic meters, about three-eighths that of the International Space Station, and generate 60 kilowatts of power. Starlab will be equipped with a robotic arm and “state-of-the-art” lab, and be able to host four astronauts at a time.
They are aiming for a 2027 launch.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Maybe as a partner rather than a contractor LM will make an effort toward on time delivery and cost containment.
I would think an engine-free tank isn’t that hard. Bigelow hab in the nose?
Will this one, finally, have artificial gravity? Or is weightlessness, and all of its disadvantages as well as advantages, be featured again?
Jeff, if you are talking about using a fuel tank as a habitable volume, they did that with Skylab as a dry workshop from the IV stage of the Saturn V. Some past proposals for a space station were to use the external tanks from the shuttles for a wet workshop.
I am right now half way through a detailed book on Skylab, which was a dry workshop. I have always been fascinated with Skylab and I have always thought it was the biggest waste to let it burn up.
Jeff, I’m guessing Bigelow is down for good. If they were able to ramp back up, we should have heard something by now, especially with the rising opportunities for new stations. Perhaps another company (like Sierra Nevada) could buy up what’s left and build upon their work?
Jay,
I blame Proxmire.
In fact.. I think that the next space station should rename the waste facility the Proxmire Module.
Matt in AZ
I would hope someone would see the assets and the opportunity.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think Bigleow was waiting on NASA/Congress to bestow a contract on him.
If someone wanted to invest in a commercial habitat, and willing to accept a long term ROI, then I would think buying him out is the place to start.
(Checks wallet). That person, sadly, will not be me.
Phil Berardelli, I think the point is that it will be weightless. I believe that is the kind of research they are hoping to attract.
Otherwise, why bother with the expense of putting something into orbit?
sippin_bourbon wrote: “Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think Bigleow was waiting on NASA/Congress to bestow a contract on him.”
I don’t know that you are wrong, but my impression was that he was waiting for Dragon or Starliner to be available to take passengers/researchers to his space station(s). NASA’s (Congress’s) delays hurt him badly. Bigalow had originally planned to have at least one independent habitat on orbit before 2020, but without commercial transportation, there was no point in launching them. The governmental mismanagement of the Wuhan flu probably put an end to Begalow’s ability to continue operations, as he depended heavily on real estate (hotels, etc.) to fund the aerospace company.
“Phil Berardelli, I think the point is that it will be weightless. I believe that is the kind of research they are hoping to attract.
Otherwise, why bother with the expense of putting something into orbit?”
An advantage to starting in orbit (free fall) is that then a rotating space station could create partial gravity sections, such as lunar and Mars gravity equivalents. Much research could be performed between 1 G and 0 G. Even a rotating space station could have a de-spun section for free fall experiments and for docking ports.
However, I do not know of any plan to build an actual rotating space station in the way that Disney and Von Braun envisioned.