Starlab design as of December 2025

The consortium developing the commercial Starlab space station has signed an agreement with the Luxembourg satellite company SES to use its various satellite constellations for communications once the station is launched.

At the core of LRS is SES’s next-generation MEO constellation, O3b mPOWER. Traditionally, LEO satellites communicating to large ground stations experience data delays due to intermittent coverage. O3b mPOWER, eliminates data delays through a multi-orbit LRS infrastructure by relaying LEO data through MEO to ground networks in near real-time. This enables always-on connectivity for Starlab operators, researchers, and on-orbit crew, ensuring uninterrupted access to data, telemetry, and mission operations that support critical decision-making and mission awareness.

Note that this private station chose not to use NASA’s TDRS constellation which the agency presently uses to maintain contact full time with ISS, and for good reason. That constellation is aging, and NASA has decided not to replace it, relying instead on commercial satellites, just like Starlab, when the TDRS constellation is finally de-orbited.
My updated ranking of the five American space stations presently under development:

• Haven-1 and Haven-2, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company plans to launch its single module Haven-1 demo station in 2027 for a three-year period during which it will be occupied by at least four 2-week-long manned missions, one of which will include a French astronaut. It planned manned mission to ISS in ’28 will also include both a French and Czech astronaut. It has also made preliminary deals with Lithuania, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Japan, the Czech Republic, and the Maldives for possible astronaut flights to Haven-1, as well as four biomedical companies. It has raised more than a billion in cash for this work, and has already tested an unmanned small demo module in orbit.
• Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, with extensive partnership agreements with the European Space Agency, Mitsubishi, and others. Though no construction has yet begun on its NASA-approved design, it has raised $383 million in a public stock offering, the $217.5 million provided by NASA, and an unstated amount from private capital, probably in the range of about $250 million. It has also begun signing up station customers, as well as a number of companies to build the station’s hardware and provide the station communications. It also plans a mission to ISS in ’28.
• Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched four tourist flights to ISS. A fifth mission is now planned for ’27. The company has now raised $625 million in private investment capital. Thales Alenia in Europe has been building its first two modules, with the first scheduled to launch in 2028. The company has also now established a subsidiary in Europe as well as signed Redwire to build that module’s solar panels.
• Thunderbird, proposed by the startup Max Space. It is building a smaller demo test station to launch in ’27 on a Falcon 9 rocket, and has begun work on its manufacturing facility at Kennedy in Florida. Its management includes one former NASA astronaut and one former member of the Bigelow space station team that built the first private orbiting inflatable modules, Genesis-1, Genesis-2, and BEAM (still operating on ISS).
• Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. This station appears dead in the water. Blue Origin has built almost nothing, and while Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, its reputation is soured by its failure in getting its Dream Chaser cargo mini-shuttle launched to ISS.