Voyager Space
SpaceX has been selected to launch the Starlab space station to low-Earth orbit (LEO) before 2030 – a commercial venture from a joint partnership between Airbus and Voyager Space.
Nasa plans to decommission the International Space Station (ISS) in 2031 while supporting the creation of private Earth-orbiting space stations in which the agency would only be one of the customers using it.
Starlab is envisaged to be a continuously crewed, free-flying space station that will serve a variety of customers including space agencies, researchers and companies. The facility will be used to continue microgravity research once the ISS has been retired.
Voyager Space CEO Dylan Taylor said it had selected SpaceX for the launch due to its “history of success and reliability”. Starlab is planned to launch on just a single flight and be fully outfitted on the ground, ready to permanently host four crew members.
SpaceX is developing its Starship super heavy lift launch vehicle, which is currently the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. Starship is intended to be fully reusable, which means both stages will be recovered after a mission or the next flight.
But it has faced a troubled early development, with the first flight test in April last year ending four minutes after launch due to a loss of control resulting in the destruction of the launch vehicle. The second flight test took place in November, and while it achieved stage separation, the Super Heavy booster exploded roughly 30 seconds later following multiple engine failures.
The Starlab team said it has achieved multiple milestones over the past year as part of the slow process to getting the space station ready for eventual launch.
“Starlab’s single-launch solution continues to demonstrate not only what is possible, but how the future of commercial space is happening now,” said Tom Ochinero, senior vice president of commercial business at SpaceX. “The SpaceX team is excited for Starship to launch Starlab to support humanity’s continued presence in LEO on our way to making life multiplanetary.”
The private project will compete with China’s state-funded Tiangong space station, which was completed in May 2022 after a series of launches.
Tiangong’s 17m-long core module recently passed the milestone of spending 1,000 days in LEO.
China aims to keep it operating for at least a decade and it has so far accommodated six crewed missions that have used its life support systems and sleeping quarters. While it is just 20% as massive as the 460-ton ISS, it has made records by housing 17 people in orbit at one time, set in May 2023.
