With a view to the possible end of the International Space Station (ISS), the US space agency Nasa has commissioned three companies to develop new space stations – including Blue Origin from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin will receive $ 130 million for this, the company Nanoracks from Texas 160 million dollars and the company Northrop Grumman from Virginia 125.6 million dollars, NASA announced on Thursday. “We are working with US companies to develop space travel destinations that people can visit and where they can live and work,” said Nasa CEO Bill Nelson.
Blue Origin announced just a few weeks ago that it was working on its own space station called “Orbital Reef” – together with several partners, including Boeing. The largest and most durable space station to date is the ISS operated by NASA together with numerous partner authorities from all over the world, which has been permanently inhabited by changing astronauts since 2000. Until when this will remain in operation has not yet been finally clarified. An official decision to continue operating after 2024 is still pending. Russia also wants to build its own space station.
In line with this, two US astronauts replaced a defective antenna system on the ISS during an outdoor assignment. Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron left the ISS for around 6 hours and 30 minutes on Thursday, according to NASA. The mission – Barron’s first and Marshburn’s fifth – was successful. It was actually planned for Tuesday, but was postponed because of the danger of debris in space. What kind of rubble it was was not disclosed.
About two weeks ago, the crew of the ISS – including the German astronaut Matthias Maurer – had to get to safety in two spaceships docked at the station because of a feared collision with space debris. A day later, Russia confirmed that its military had tested an anti-satellite missile and shot down a disused satellite. There has been a lot of international criticism that Russia has thereby endangered the security of the ISS.