One of the most enduring achievements of spaceflight has been the partnership with the International Space Station. For more than three decades, the United States has worked with Canada, Europe, Japan, and Russia to build and operate the station, overcoming technical and political challenges to create a space station that has been continuously manned for more than 20 years.
However, this partnership will end around 2030, when the ISS will be decommissioned and sent out of orbit over the South Pacific. Western ISS partners will continue to work together on Artemis features such as the lunar gateway, but without a formal agreement to work together in low Earth orbit. (Russian officials say they will develop their own space station, although the country’s space program shows signs of decline.)
As NASA promotes the development of commercial space stations to replace the ISS, American companies and international partners alike are trying to figure out how to work together within the new paradigm. Barter agreements between agencies will give way to agreements, treaties and joint ventures involving countries and companies. The companies developing these stations use different approaches to attract ISS partners and other countries to their facilities.
STARLAB RE-FORMS ISS PARTNERSHIP
Among the companies that work on commercial space stations, Starlab Space has taken the biggest steps to bring to other countries. The company itself is a joint venture involving companies representing all of the ISS’s Western partners.
Starlab Space began last August when US company Voyager Space, which won one of NASA’s awards to support the development of commercial space stations, teamed up with Airbus Defense and Space. The companies have already collaborated on a revised concept for the Starlab space station, which would use a large fixed module developed by Airbus to replace the inflatable module from Lockheed Martin originally designed for the station.
The companies saw the joint venture as more than just a combination of technical expertise. For Voyager, bringing in Airbus was also a way to tap into the European government and commercial markets. “We have a great relationship with ESA, but Airbus obviously has a much better relationship,” Matt Kuta, president of Voyager Space, said at the time. “It allows us to see how we can meet these customer requirements more directly and more successfully.”
Two more companies joined Starlab Space this spring. In April, Mitsubishi Corporation announced that it would take an equity stake in the joint venture, use Starlab to develop ground-based products, and support other Japanese companies interested in accessing the station. In May, Canada’s MDA Space signed a contract to take an equity stake and provide a robotic arm system based on technologies it developed for the Space Shuttle and ISS.
“In the commercial space market, many of these missions require strong teams,” said Mike Greenley, chief executive of MDA Space, in an interview about why his company chose to become a Starlab partner rather than just a vendor. “We can also bring our business skills and our general space mission experience to these strong corporate teams.”
In an interview after the MDA Space deal, Kuta said that bringing companies from Canada, Europe and Japan into the Starlab Space joint venture was a deliberate effort to create partnerships like those on the ISS today. “We have been very focused since the beginning of the ISS recovery strategy, but instead of it being owned by the government, it is owned by the leading aerospace and defense corporations in these regions,” he said. “They understand how to technically build a space station, they understand how to manage customer relationships, and they understand how to access government funding.”
That last point is important because other space agencies have expressed reluctance to pay U.S. companies directly to use commercial space stations, a departure from ISS exchange agreements that allow agencies to spend money domestically.
“It is very difficult for Europe or Japan to send hundreds of millions of euros or tens of billions of yen to American companies every year for 30 years and employ a lot of Americans in Houston,” Kuta said.
There are also geopolitical factors to consider, as reported by China’s Tiangong Space Station. “They are working to gain market share. They are working with the Middle-earth to try to lure them into their sphere of influence as an extension of their Belt and Road initiative,” he said. “Working with these international companies as co-owners is a demonstration of the sovereignty of the Western world, if you will.”
“Starlab is kind of fun because in a sense we’re putting the band back together,” said MDA Space’s Greenley. “We are successfully creating a joint venture here that connects the ISS states and embarks on a new adventure on a commercial space station.”
AXIOM PARTNERSHIP
Axiom Space is already active in the field of commercial space stations: it has carried out three private astronaut missions to the ISS, with a fourth planned for later this year as it works on a series of modules to install on the ISS that will be a precursor. a stand-alone commercial station after the end of ISS operations.
The company has worked with companies and agencies within and outside of the ISS partnership. Thales Alenia Space is building the structures for the Axiom space station modules in Italy, which will later be shipped to Axiom’s headquarters in Houston for outfitting. The company’s private astronaut missions have been flown by people from several countries, including one ESA backup astronaut, Marcus Wandt, whose place on the Ax-3 mission earlier this year was funded by Sweden.
Axiom has signed agreements with some ESA member states, such as Hungary and the United Kingdom, for future missions. It also has a separate agreement with ESA itself, announced in October 2023, to study ESA’s collaboration on the Axiom station.
Boryung Corporation, a South Korean healthcare company, was the lead investor in Axiom’s $350 million Series C round in August 2023, and in January formed a joint venture with Axiom called BRAX Space Corporation to test cooperation with South Korean companies on the Axiom station.
“We have established a foundation to support projects exclusively in South Korea with Axiom Space, which has the strongest competitiveness in the private sector when it comes to LEO,” Jay Kim, chairman and chief executive of Boryung, said in a statement about the joint venture. . “In addition to our financial investment in Axiom Space, we will continue to develop our relationship as close strategic partners.”
Axiom’s efforts to work with other governments on its space station include not only national agencies, but also those at the state and regional levels. On June 26, Axiom announced that it had signed a letter of intent with Germany’s Bavarian state chancellor to study a collaboration that may include flying an astronaut or setting up a microgravity laboratory. The company added that it is considering setting up its “European hub” in Bavaria.
THE BIG RACES THAT ARE CATCHED UP
Vast Space got off to a late start in its efforts to develop a commercial space station: the company didn’t form until after NASA awarded the Commercial LEO Destination Awards in late 2021. However, it is racing to catch up and build an initial single-module station. called Haven-1, scheduled for launch in late 2025, will be able to support crews of four for up to 40 days.
With funding from its billionaire founder Jed McCaleb and a focus on vertical integration, Vast has not brought in other companies as major partners or suppliers for its planned stations outside of SpaceX, which will launch Haven-1 and provide the Crew Dragon spacecraft for missions to it. However, the company is now starting to partner with space agencies and companies in other countries.
At the ILA Air Show in Berlin on June 6, Vast announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with ESA to study the potential use of Haven-1 and future ESA stations. Vast said it would explore whether European companies could provide any subsystems and consider using future European crew and cargo spacecraft for these stations.
Max Haot, Vast’s chief executive, said in an interview that the deal was part of an effort to bring in ESA and other space agencies as customers or partners for its space stations.
“The European ecosystem, led by ESA, is a very important partner for any future ISS replacement,” he said. “A big priority for us is to build to their requirements and allow them to fly their cargo and astronauts.”
He said the deal could lead to “deeper ties” that could include partnerships with European companies or even a large office in Europe. According to him, the conclusion of the agreement with ESA is “the first step, a signal that Vast sees a trustworthy partner”.
Vast began actively marketing Haven-1 and its future larger stations internationally last fall at the International Astronautical Congress in Azerbaijan. “We are involving all countries, including the key ones that are part of the ISS,” Haot said. “ESA is the first, but obviously we hope to gain momentum in Europe and other regions of the world.”
THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
At ILA Berlin, Vast also signed a contract with European startup The Exploration Company. Under the deal, The Exploration Company’s Nyx cargo vehicle will travel to the second Vast space station—the larger successor to Haven-1—as early as 2028 and transport cargo to and from the station.
It was the last in a series of deals and contracts won by The Exploration Company. In late May, Starlab Space signed a contract with the company for cargo services for three Nyx missions to Starlab. Last September, Axiom Space signed a “pre-booking” of Nyx missions to its space station.
Work on Nyx is now supported by ESA, which selected The Exploration Company along with Thales Alenia Space for contracts in May to carry out design work on their truck concepts. The agency will seek funding from its member states for further development, including test flights to the ISS, at the next Ministerial Council meeting in late 2025.
“This historic initiative demonstrates ESA’s agility and willingness to act as a major client, thus combining public and private funding, as NASA did some 15 years ago,” said Hélène Huby, CEO of The Exploration Company, in a statement after ESA won. price. She was referring to NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program for delivering cargo to the ISS, which demonstrated the feasibility of such commercial services and also fueled SpaceX’s growth.
However, the future of Nyx and its Thales counterpart will depend on these commercial stations. As the ISS will be decommissioned in 2030, it is unlikely that ESA will purchase services for ISS operations from these spacecraft. These vehicles will then have to find trade from commercial stations, either through ESA or directly with the companies.
In an interview before the ESA award, Huby said the company understands the importance of the US market. It opened an American office led by Mark Kirasich, former NASA Orion program manager, to work with American customers and with NASA.
“I want to be strong in the US,” she said. “It is very important that we start as soon as possible in the US”
This article first appeared in the July 2024 issue of SpaceNews Magazine.