Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has passed four key milestones for its $172 million NASA contract to build a new space station.
NASA plans to retire the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030 by crashing it into the Pacific Ocean, which should be fun.
Before then, the American space organization is looking to replace the ISS with a new one by collaborating with a private company.
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Orbital Reef is one of the promising candidates for the new space station program.
It is a joint venture between Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Sierra Space.
Surprisingly, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is not competing with Blue Origin to build a space station.
Instead, the company is more focused on Musk’s goal to send people to Mars and potentially even beyond.
In the meantime, NASA has reported that Orbital Reef passed four key milestones.
These milestones include critical technology, including a system to recycle future astronauts’ and tourists’ urine.
Another system will provide clean air and water for humans to breathe and drink while on the space station.
Blue Origin passed a series of tests for Orbital Reef’s regenerative system for ‘normal human activities.’
These tests included removing impurities from the air, recycling urine, and maintaining a water tank.
Other than the space station, Orbital Reef has also been working on a commercial spaceplane to take tourists into space.
It looks like the future of space travel is now geared toward tourism, as well as Musk’s interplanetary ambitions.
NASA has awarded Blue Origin and Sierra Space a $172 million contract.
Their goal is to develop a commercialized space station to replace the ISS after it retires.
NASA plans to relocate the budget for the ISS to establish a permanent human presence on the moon.
This plan includes building a space station in lunar orbit and a base on the moon’s surface with SpaceX, via the Artemis missions.
So it might not be long till we see a new golden age of space exploration.
