Private company to build its own ISS airlock
Capitalism in space: The private company NanoRacks has raised the funds necessary to build its own ISS airlock and install it in 2019.
“The reason we want our own airlock is this airlock is going to be five times bigger than the current airlock, and it’s going to be far more commercial,” Manber said in a Sept. 27 presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. In addition to satellite deployments and experiments, he said the module will be commercial “real estate” on the station, with the ability to mount payloads on its exterior. “It’s getting us more into the real estate business and space station operations,” he said.
Manber said the module was on track to launch in 2019, carried to the station in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft. A formal manifesting of the payload on a resupply flight is now being finalized, he said, while the airlock itself is being manufactured.
What this suggests to me is that ISS might not go away in 2024, but instead slowly shift to private ownership and operation, all for profit. This deal appears to lay the groundwork for this shift.
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
Capitalism in space: The private company NanoRacks has raised the funds necessary to build its own ISS airlock and install it in 2019.
“The reason we want our own airlock is this airlock is going to be five times bigger than the current airlock, and it’s going to be far more commercial,” Manber said in a Sept. 27 presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. In addition to satellite deployments and experiments, he said the module will be commercial “real estate” on the station, with the ability to mount payloads on its exterior. “It’s getting us more into the real estate business and space station operations,” he said.
Manber said the module was on track to launch in 2019, carried to the station in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft. A formal manifesting of the payload on a resupply flight is now being finalized, he said, while the airlock itself is being manufactured.
What this suggests to me is that ISS might not go away in 2024, but instead slowly shift to private ownership and operation, all for profit. This deal appears to lay the groundwork for this shift.
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 Space is building a private module to dock with the ISS. It will be followed by more modules until it can disconnect as a separate space station. They seem to be well financed and led by former ISS managers and astronauts. They have a low profile online, Google didn’t even find their website, I went through their Twitter to find it. Because they are more professional than enthusiastic and don’t need any crowdfunding or public following. Space business run as an ordinary company, it seems to me.
https://www.axiomspace.com/
2019 First Axiom crew to the ISS.
2021-2022 Launch of the first Axiom space station module.
The Deep Space Gateway could never compete with a space station in LEO for any commercial uses. Too high costs, too risky, too little productive time (95% less astronaut-space-days a year than the ISS) and not any benefits at all in return. If the DSG becomes real, then Axiom will likely dominate all human space flight worldwide. An early lead they might never want to give up.
Could someone chime in with how many nodes are available for these things? Nanoracks, Bigelow, Axiom, and also others all want a spot. Is there enough to go around?
How does the Nanoracks airlock compare in size to the larger one that will be used by NASA?
@wodun
Here’s some discussion of it, although 4 years old.
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/2245/will-the-iss-need-more-docking-ports
wodun asked: “Could someone chime in with how many nodes are available for these things? Nanoracks, Bigelow, Axiom, and also others all want a spot. Is there enough to go around?”
The idea of the Nanoracks airlock is to launch cubesats, not to dock with additional spacecraft or add more modules.
From the article: “NanoRacks signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA in 2016 to develop the airlock, which will handle satellite deployments and other experiments that today use the airlock in the Kibo module.”
As for Bigelow and Axiom (a group comprised of NanoRacks, Space Systems/Loral, and United Launch Alliance), there is also a company, Ixion, working on space habitats. With three companies in competition, we should get some low-cost commercial space stations in the coming decade.
Bigelow currently has a test module, “BEAM,” on ISS, but its attachment is subject to end a few years from now.
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-to-extend-use-of-private-module-on-iss/
There are not enough ports to go around. There may only be the port that BEAM is currently attached to. The article linked in the following BTB post shows us that the port that Bigelow is currently using will some day be available for another demonstration module, possibly from one of the three companies:
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/bigelow-proposes-extending-life-of-its-iss-module-beyond-its-two-year-demo/
“NASA has identified the ISS port currently used by BEAM as a location that could eventually host larger commercial modules, intended as a stepping-stone to full-fledged commercial space stations. NASA issued a request for information (RFI) last July that several companies, including Bigelow Aerospace, responded to regarding use of that port and other station resources to host a commercial module.“