Project “Orbital Reef”: Now Jeff Bezos wants a space station

Status: 10/26/2021 12:33 p.m.

Only recently, the US billionaire Jeff Bezos himself flew into space. Now the Amazon founder is planning a private space station with his space company Blue Origin – which will also be used by tourists.

The space company Blue Origin of the US billionaire Jeff Bezos is planning a private space station in space. According to Blue Origin, the “Orbital Reef” named space station will fly at an altitude of 500 kilometers and will be launched between 2025 and 2030. The International Space Station ISS moves about 100 kilometers deeper. With a volume of 830 cubic meters, Blue Origin’s station would be slightly smaller than the ISS.

The space station should be used by companies to research weightlessness, for example. It should also be open to wealthy space tourists. Blue Origin is working on the project with the commercial space company Sierra Space, among others. The US aircraft manufacturer Boeing and Arizona State University are also involved.

Planned for up to ten people

According to Blue Origin, the planned space station should be able to accommodate ten people. Accordingly, they could experience 32 sunrises and sunsets a day in futuristic modules with large windows. “We will expand access, reduce costs and provide all the services and amenities required to normalize space travel,” said Brent Sherwood, Managing Director.

Blue Origin is currently able to fly its “New Shepard” rocket to an altitude of just over 100 kilometers, which is already accepted by most experts as part of space. In July, Bezos himself flew to this altitude for a few minutes on the missile’s first manned flight. In mid-October, the company had launched the “Star Trek” actor William Shatner (“Captain Kirk”) into space. “New Shepard” is only designed to bring people into space as space tourists.

Setback in US lunar mission

The company’s other planned projects include the “New Glenn” rocket, which can bring cargo into orbit in addition to people. Most recently, Blue Origin also suffered a serious setback when the US government awarded the contract to build a lunar module to competitor SpaceX from Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Virgin Galactic by British entrepreneur Richard Branson is one of the companies that have discovered space as a business model. Its space plane “SpaceShipTwo” is also supposed to transport tourists.

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