Having successfully completed two crewed flights to the Kármán line (the internationally agreed upon border of space) Blue Origin has announced plans to build a commercial space station.

The project is called Orbital Reef and it will be the child of both Blue Origin and Sierra Space. The space station is being billed as a “mixed use business park in space” and will offer customers the services they need to do business in low-Earth orbit. This includes transportation to the space station, habitation, equipment accommodation and more.

To us this sounds like Blue Origin and Sierra Space want to operate a space station on their own terms rather than making use of the International Space Station. That’s not entirely a bad thing but it’s also not great given the reputation Jeff Bezos and Amazon have garnered over the years.

While the Orbital Reef is being over seen by Blue Origin and Sierra Space, a number of firms will be tapped up to help build the sort of environment needed to make business viable in space.

The businesses involved and what they will be bringing to the table includes:

• Blue Origin – Utility systems, large-diameter core modules and reusable heavy-lift New Glenn launch system.
• Sierra Space – Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) module, node module, runway-landing Dream Chaser spaceplane for crew and cargo transportation capable of landing on runways worldwide
• Boeing – Science module, station operations, maintenance engineering and Starliner crew spacecraft
• Redwire Space – Microgravity research, development and manufacturing of payload operations and deployable structures
• Genesis Engineering Solutions – Single person spacecraft for routine operations and tourist excursions.
• Arizona State University – lead a global consortium of universities providing research advisory services and public outreach

We’re finding it a bit difficult to contain our excitement here. The outline above paints a vivid picture of a space station that anybody could visit, with enough funds of course.

“For over sixty years, NASA and other space agencies have developed orbital space flight and space habitation, setting us up for commercial business to take off in this decade,” said Brent Sherwood, Senior Vice President of Advanced Development Programs for Blue Origin. “We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalise space flight. A vibrant business ecosystem will grow in low Earth orbit, generating new discoveries, new products, new entertainments, and global awareness”.

To break away from the space station for a bit we need to address a glaring issue.

Arizona State University is said to lead a “global consortium of universities” in the Orbital Reef University Advisory Council. The problem we have is that this “global” consortium, is currently comprised of multiple universities in the US, one in France and one in the UK. These universities are:

• Arizona State University
• Colorado School of Mines
• International Space University
• Oxford University
• Purdue University
• Southwest Research Institute
• Stanford University
• University of Central Florida
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Florida
• University of Michigan
• University of Texas at El Paso
• University of Texas Medical Branch
• Vanderbilt University

And this is where this project has us worried that the Orbital Reef will be the exclusive playground of billionaires and the elite from first world nations.

Of course we can’t know everything about this space station until it’s operational but we hope that Blue Origin and Sierra Space are aware that the world is larger than the US.

With that said, we’re absolutely keen for weekend jaunts to space and if the Orbital Reef can make that a reality, well then we’re incredibly excited for its launch later this decade.