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What Happened To Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef Space Station?

The last time we got a big update on the Orbital Reef project was over a year ago in August 2022. At the time they announced that the station had advanced to the design phase after completing a review with NASA. Since then, we have heard very little from either Blue Origin or Sierra Space the two co-leads of the project. This brings up the question of what have they been up to and what progress has this station made.

Unfortunately, Orbital Reef specific updates have been void for many months now. On the bright side, a lot of this station relies on different projects from the companies involved. These we have more information on and will determine the future timeline of this project and exactly how it’s coming along. This includes some of the modules themselves and the launch systems responsible for transporting them to LEO.

With plans to launch the first modules in just over three years from now in 2027, there is a lot of work that still needs to be completed. Here I will go more in-depth into the company’s plan, progress on the station, concerns from NASA, and more.

Timeline Concerns

Orbital Reef is described as the premier mixed-use space station in low Earth orbit for commerce, research, and tourism by the end of this decade. The two main companies behind the project are Sierra Space and Blue Origin, however Boeing, Redwire Space, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University are also all partners.

Originally in October 2021, plans were announced for the Oribtal Reef station. Between then and last year they completed a few design reviews and various project milestones. This leads up to the last update over a year ago. Here in reference to completing the System Definition Review, they were quoted saying, “It demonstrates to NASA that the space station design is feasible and achievable while validating that the Orbital Reef system is on-track to proceed into the design phase.”

This was practically all the information provided on what the next steps were and even the future timeline. Looking at social media the last tweet from the company was around half a year ago in March.

Even NASA expressed some concerns about the future timeline of this station among others. It’s important to point out that Orbital Reef is one of three proposed commercial space stations that received funded Space Act Agreements from NASA as part of the CLD program. With the ISS expected to retire at the end of this decade, NASA intends to implement an orderly transition from current ISS operations to these new commercial destinations. Besides the $130 million for Orbital Reef, a team led by Nanoracks won $160 million while Northrop Grumman received $125 million for its own commercial space station concept. A fourth company, Axiom Space, has a separate agreement with NASA to attach commercial modules to the International Space Station that will later form the core of a commercial space station.

In late 2021, the NASA Office of Inspector General completed an audit titled NASA’s Management of the International Space Station and Efforts to Commercialize Low Earth Orbit. Here they looked at NASA’s future ISS timeline and some of the companies the agency expected to provide future stations. They were quoted saying, “NASA faces significant challenges with fully executing the plan in time to meet its 2028 goal and avoid a gap in availability of a low Earth orbit destination. Challenges of commercialization include limited market demand, inadequate funding, unreliable cost estimates, and still-evolving requirements.

They went on to say, “In our judgment, even if early design maturation is achieved in 2025—a challenging prospect in itself—a commercial platform is not likely to be ready until well after 2030. NASA’s current timeframe to design and build a human-rated destination platform is unrealistic” they said.

In response to this, the CLD program manager commented that, “The frameworks of these agreements are set up to allow them to run quickly, to run a lot faster than our normal typical development, and we are absolutely seeing that.” She went on to suggest that the Office of Inspector General erred by comparing the commercial space station development with more traditional government programs. The companies involved are motivated to be first, she argued. “Because of those motivations and the differences of this framework, you’re going to see a different kind of development that you just can’t compare to a typical government program development, which is what OIG and ASAP are doing” she said.

Physical Progress

While there have been very few updates on the station as a whole in the past year, we have seen physical progress on different station segments. Looking at different visuals and images of the station highlights the use of multiple inflatable modules. Together they are expected to make up a good portion of the pressurized volume within Orbital Reef.

Just days ago, we got a new update on this system and its progress. On September 20th, Sierra Space tweeted saying, “Our team successfully completed a fifth, sub-scale test of the revolutionary LIFE habitat at @NASA_Marshall. This test article included a blanking plate and allows the team to move onto full-scale testing of the LIFE product line development.” Even though Sierra Space has already completed a few of these tests, this one is more significant as they can now move on to bigger tests.

They were quoted saying, “This latest successful milestone and the first one in the testing campaign to include a metallic window sub-structure – or blanking plate – now propels Sierra Space into full-scale testing of LIFE by the end of this year.”

The results of this test provide a 33% margin over the certification standard for full-scale LIFE testing, and nearly a 20% improvement over the previous design, aligning with Sierra Space’s two previous sub-scale UBP tests conducted in July and November 2022.

“Inclusion of the blanking plate hard structure was a game-changer because this was the first time that we infused metallics into our softgoods pressure shell technology prior to conducting a UBP test,” said Sr. Director Engineering and Product Evolution Director for Sierra Space Destinations, Shawn Buckley. “This is a phenomenal achievement and provides the necessary engineering foundation that allows us to move into the next phase of the LIFE product line development – full-scale testing of LIFE” he said. Once fully developed, the LIFE habitat will house a minimum of two windows, and they are a critical feature in the development of the LIFE habitat.

In addition to the LIFE habitat moving on to full-scale testing, the launch vehicle responsible for sending these modules into orbit is approaching a launch date. Blue Origin is responsible for utility systems, large-diameter core modules, and primarily the reusable heavy-lift New Glenn launch system. As we approach the end of 2023, the company is still targeting a maiden flight next year in 2024. Last month, Blue Origin released a picture showing the inside of its main production building at Exploration Park. The image revealed different hardware on the production floor including first and second-stage tank sections, barrel sections, domes, engine/landing leg sections, and interstages.

The BE-4 engine has also been making some progress as Blue Origin works to increase production for high future demand. Not to mention for the first time ever this engine will lift off on a rocket as soon as a few months from now. While Vulcan was delayed a bit more due to a weakness in the upper stage tank dome, Tory Bruno has continued to make clear that a launch this year is not only possible but likely. Already the two flight engines have completed a static fire on the vehicle with promising results. Assuming the first flight goes well relative to the first stage engines, Blue Origin will receive a bunch of invaluable data on how they performed and what went well. All of which will apply to New Glenn and the eventual integration of 7 engines on the rocket’s first stage.

Other important aspects of the station such as the main solid modules we have heard very little about. A few months ago it was revealed that there were two milestones coming up for Orbital Reef, including a core structural test. This was likely referring to those large main modules which is a good sign. Other than this, we aren’t sure of the exact timeframe and when these are expected to be completed.

Looking at the other groups involved, Boeing is responsible for the science module, station operations, maintenance engineering, and Starliner crew spacecraft. Redwire Space will help provide Microgravity research, development, and manufacturing; payload operations, and deployable structures. Genesis Engineering Solutions brings the Single Person Spacecraft for routine operations and tourist excursions. Finally, Arizona State University is supposed to provide research advisory services and public outreach.

In the grand scheme of things, there are a lot of unknowns with this project. At the same time, we know that the main aspects and projects are underway and making progress. Whether or not this progress is fast enough to meet their deadline is hard to tell.

Conclusion

Blue Origin and Sierra Space are trying to launch the first Orbital Reef module in 2027. To do this they will need an operational New Glenn rocket and a finished module. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.