Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Appointed By NASA To Build ISS

Orbital Reef Design (Source: Blue Origin)

JAKARTA - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced a company that will design a private International Space Station (ISS) in 2030.

The agency said that currently the orbiting ISS is getting old, and must be replaced immediately. Therefore, NASA provided funds for private companies to design new stations by taking over the research functions.

The three companies selected were Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, renowned aerospace company Northrop Grumman, and a small company called Nanoracks that specializes in reusing space debris.

A total of 415.6 million US dollars or the equivalent of more than IDR 6 trillion has been given to fund design projects. Over the next four years, these companies will develop their plans for a space station in low-Earth orbit that can be used by government agencies and the private sector.

“With commercial companies now providing transportation to low-Earth orbit, we are partnering with US companies to develop a space destination where people can visit, live, and work, enabling NASA to continue to forge a path in space for the benefit of humanity. while encouraging commercial activity in space", said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as quoted by Digital Trends, Sunday, December 5.

The three companies have released some details about their proposals. Blue Origin calls its station concept Orbital Reef and is designing it with Boeing, Sierra Space, and others. They said they wanted to launch the station in 2027.

Meanwhile, Nanoracks called its station, which is being developed with parent company Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin's aerospace premiere, Starlab. Unfortunately, Northrop didn't give his station proposal a flashy name, he worked with Dynetics to come up with a modular design based on his spacecraft, Cygnus.

In a recently published report, NASA stated the possibility that the ISS would continue to operate into 2030, but it saw a gap that the station was nearing the end of its service life.

That's why he plans to deliver one or more commercial space stations designed by the three companies to be operational by 2028, allow a continuous human presence, and research in low Earth orbit.

However, NASA is not just asking the three private companies to design, going forward the agency also has plans to buy their services where astronauts can live and work on the station.

This plan would be similar to the current system of transporting astronauts and cargo between Earth and the ISS using private company rockets, SpaceX Crew Dragon, or Northrop Grumman Cygnus.

"This strategy will provide the government with the services it needs at a lower cost, allowing NASA to focus on its Artemis missions to the moon and Mars while continuing to use low-Earth orbit as a training and evidence base", NASA said.