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NASA Clears Jeff Bezos’ Space Station, Orbital Reef Moving to Design Phase

Back in October last year, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced plans to build an orbital station meant to advance both research and space tourism. Called Orbital Reef and developed together with Sierra Space, the station just cleared a major hurdle on the path to becoming reality.
Orbital Reef space station rendering 14 photos
Photo: Sierra Space
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This week, the two companies announced Orbital Reef completed its System Definition Review (SDR) with NASA, effectively moving the project into design phase. In words we can all understand, passing the SDR means NASA sees the station as feasible and achievable.

“We are on the doorstep of the most profound industrial revolution in human history. An industrial revolution marked by the transition from the last 60 years of space exploration to a future where humanity extends our factories and cities into space. It isn’t solely about tourism - it is about unlocking the next great discoveries using the microgravity factories that we will build just 250 miles above the Earth’s surface,” said in a statement Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space.

“The microgravity factories and services provided by Orbital Reef have the potential to revolutionize every industry and become a major growth contributor to the U.S. and world economies.”

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 of modules, of course, with Earth-facing windows and meant for living and working. Ten people will be able to live on the station at a given time, with the station offering at first an overall volume of 830 cubic meters (29,300 cubic feet).

Orbital Reef will be backed by several new innovative technologies, including the inflatable Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) module, and the Dream Chaser spaceplane, which will be used to carry people up and down (the Boeing Starliner will also be used for this, but not SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, for obvious reasons). A single-person spacecraft might also be on deck on the station, ready to take people on joyrides and work missions around the station.

Orbital Reef is expected to be up and running sometime in 2027.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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