NanoRacks outlines its private space station plans
Capitalism in space: NanoRacks, which already makes money launching private payloads to ISS, has revealed its plans for building its own private space station using converted Atlas 5 upper stages.
This project was previously called Ixion, but they have dropped that name, and will now call the first station Independence-1.
They have a contract with NASA for the initial development, and hope to convince the agency to pay them to next build a full-size test prototype. The video at the link to me was exceedingly unconvincing however. It shows a robot beginning the process of refurbishing a used upper stage while in orbit, and simplifies the process to an almost ludicrous degree. While I surely believe it can be done, it will not be simple. The difficulties should not be dismissed.
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Capitalism in space: NanoRacks, which already makes money launching private payloads to ISS, has revealed its plans for building its own private space station using converted Atlas 5 upper stages.
This project was previously called Ixion, but they have dropped that name, and will now call the first station Independence-1.
They have a contract with NASA for the initial development, and hope to convince the agency to pay them to next build a full-size test prototype. The video at the link to me was exceedingly unconvincing however. It shows a robot beginning the process of refurbishing a used upper stage while in orbit, and simplifies the process to an almost ludicrous degree. While I surely believe it can be done, it will not be simple. The difficulties should not be dismissed.
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
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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.
AGREE, I would think building a skylab outpost type on the ground and launch would be a lot easier than doing a complete remote retro fit in orbit by miles.
What Atlas 5 upper stage has four engines? Most Atlas launches are to GTO which leaves the upper stage in a highly elliptical orbit from 400 km to 40,000 km. Not the kind of research orbit one would like; zipping through the Van Allen’s twice a day.
The concept of using a spent propellant tank as an orbital space station/habitat/outpost is not new. This was proposed in the 1980s as a use for the spent Space Shuttle External Tank, rather than drop them into the Indian Ocean (and may have been proposed in the 1960s). There is some practical experience with the concept, as Skylab was built from an unlaunched Saturn third stage. What it takes to turn an upper stage into a usable outpost is known, but doing it to a spent stage in orbit is new.
After decades of people thinking along these lines, I am not surprised that someone again wants to try it.
Ease of assembly may not be the driving factor, as a robot could take weeks or months to make the spent stage habitable enough for humans to finish the job. Cost is likely a major driver, and the cost of building and launching the (relatively) heavy pressure vessel is already covered.
The article notes that ULA wants to reuse its next generation of upper stage, Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES).
The dream of reusing upper stages is old, and I hope that someone succeeds soon.
The Starpost website, linked in the article, notes that the team of companies is: NanoRacks, Space Systems/Loral, Altius Space Machines, and Space Adventures. Ixion’s team was NanoRacks, Space Systems/Loral, and United Launch Alliance. ULA seems to be missing from this new team, despite the outpost being made from their upper stage rocket.
https://www.starposts.space/