The European Space Agency has signed an agreement with Thales Alenia Space and Blue Origin to use the Orbital Reef space station, which they plan to build, for scientific research. This is part of ESA’s efforts to make the most of the capabilities of private companies.
New agreement
On June 18, at the Paris Air Show, representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Thales Alenia Space and Blue Origin. We are talking about delivering cargo, and possibly astronauts, to the Orbital Reef space station.
The latter is still in the design stage, but all attention is focused on it. This refers to the decommissioning of the ISS, which is scheduled for 2030. The US plans to replace it with several private stations, one of which will be Orbital Reef.
ESA is also trying to figure out how to continue its research in orbit. However, Europeans cannot build their own station, so they turn to the same private companies that Americans rely on. Last year, they signed an agreement with Vast, which is also developing a space station, and now it’s their competitors’ turn.
ESA’s plans
The signed agreements are part of a much broader ESA policy on leveraging the capabilities of private space companies. Last year, thanks to an agreement with Axiom Space, Swedish astronaut Marcus Wandt flew into space as part of the Ax-3 mission. This year, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski did the same thing as part of Ax-4.
However, the space agency does not hide the fact that all these missions are short-term, and they are counting on something more long-term. After all, astronauts need to gain experience in operating the station. Although the current agreement primarily concerns cargo, ESA has explicitly stated that its astronauts will definitely fly to Orbital Reef.
According to spacenews.com
