Photo: Sierra Space
The main goal of a commercial space station is, of course, to make money. There are a number of them being planned, from the Nanoracks Starlab to a yet unnamed Northrop Grumman station. Of them all, the most spectacular yet seems to be the one called Orbital Reef.
Being put together by Sierra Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the station should be up and running by the end of the decade, serving both space tourism needs, and some other, more useful tasks for humanity as a whole, from research in various fields to entertainment.
While work on making the space station a reality began some time ago, the hunt for potential customers for the Orbital Reef is just getting started.
A major step in finding the proper customer base and get people taking was taken this week, when Sierra Space announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Keystone Space Collaborative. That would be a non-profit in the business of advancing the space industry in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and with quite the connections in industries that might be interested in space research.
Together with the announcement of the Keystone deal, Sierra also laid out the main customer groups it targets with the Orbital Reef. In a nutshell, they are the advertising and consumer goods companies, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies, and scientific and educational institutions.
The groups will probably form the backbone of the business, but they’ll not be alone in paying Sierra and Blue Origin money for trips to space and the right to use parts of the station. Space tourists and space agencies, both foreign and domestic, will chip in as well.
Orbital Reef will be placed in low Earth orbit (LEO), at a distance of 500 km (311 miles) from the surface. It will be made up of modules with quarters for living and working, laboratories, and research stations. Up to ten people will be able to live on the station at any given time.
While work on making the space station a reality began some time ago, the hunt for potential customers for the Orbital Reef is just getting started.
A major step in finding the proper customer base and get people taking was taken this week, when Sierra Space announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Keystone Space Collaborative. That would be a non-profit in the business of advancing the space industry in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and with quite the connections in industries that might be interested in space research.
Together with the announcement of the Keystone deal, Sierra also laid out the main customer groups it targets with the Orbital Reef. In a nutshell, they are the advertising and consumer goods companies, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies, and scientific and educational institutions.
The groups will probably form the backbone of the business, but they’ll not be alone in paying Sierra and Blue Origin money for trips to space and the right to use parts of the station. Space tourists and space agencies, both foreign and domestic, will chip in as well.
Orbital Reef will be placed in low Earth orbit (LEO), at a distance of 500 km (311 miles) from the surface. It will be made up of modules with quarters for living and working, laboratories, and research stations. Up to ten people will be able to live on the station at any given time.
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