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<\/a><\/figure>As NASA continues its transition toward a commercial low Earth orbit marketplace, an agency-supported commercial space station, Starlab, recently completed five development and design milestones. Starlab\u2019s planned design consists of a service module and a habitat that will be launched to orbit on a single flight.<\/p>\n
The milestones, part of a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded in 2021<\/a>, focused on reviews of Starlab\u2019s preliminary design and safety, as well as spacecraft mockup and procurement plans. Each milestone provides NASA insight into the company\u2019s development progress.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we work toward the future of low Earth orbit, these milestones demonstrate Starlab\u2019s dedication to building a commercial space station that can support human life and advance scientific research,\u201d said Angela Hart, program manager for NASA\u2019s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at the agency\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston. \u201cBoth the insight shared by Starlab and the expertise shared by NASA are critical to future mission success.\u201d<\/p>\n Starlab recently completed a preliminary design and safety review of its station\u2019s architecture and systems. The company now will begin detailed design and hardware development, culminating in a critical design review later this year. Critical design reviews are an important step in a station\u2019s development, assessing design maturity before proceeding with fabrication and assembly.<\/p>\n Starlab also has begun construction of a full-scale, high-fidelity mockup of the station. The mockup, which will be housed in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at NASA Johnson, will be used for human-in-the-loop testing, during which participants perform day-in-the-life walkthroughs and evaluate the interior design, crew training, procedure development, hardware checks, and in-flight issue resolution.<\/p>\n In addition, Starlab completed reviews of the system design architecture, procurement plan, and Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft docking system design. In 2023, Northrop Grumman teamed up<\/a> with Starlab to provide cargo logistics services and engineering consultation to support the commercial space station. These reviews included design configuration updates of solar arrays, docking ports, crew quarters, and more.<\/p>\n NASA supports the design and development of multiple commercial space stations through funded and unfunded agreements. Following the design and development phase, NASA plans to procure services from one or more companies as part of its strategy to become one of many customers for low Earth orbit stations.<\/p>\n Learn more about commercial space stations at:<\/p>\n www.nasa.gov\/commercialspacestations<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>Discover More Topics<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n