What Progress Is The First Commercial Space Station Making?
The International Space Station has been orbiting the Earth for over two decades. In that time, it helped facilitate and discover incredible things thanks to its location in low Earth orbit. However, by now the age of the station is becoming more apparent and NASA knows it will not last forever. This being said, rather than the agency working to build another new station, they are looking for help within the commercial industry for a new approach to LEO.
Years ago NASA awarded Axiom Space a contract with a maximum potential value, inclusive of options, of $140 million. Under this contract, the company is expected to provide at least one habitable commercial module to be attached to the International Space Station as the agency continues to open the station for commercial use.
In the past few months, we have seen more progress from the company as physical modules begin to take shape. This comes in addition to new documents released by NASA giving insight into future commercial space station operations. Here I will go more in-depth into Axiom’s plan, the progress they are making, its importance for both NASA and the industry, and more.
Module Construction
It has been just over 3 years since NASA awarded Axiom its contract in early 2020. In the time since then, they have already made an impressive amount of progress on the station. It’s important to point out that this progress is not just on paper but physical modules. Following the completion of preliminary and critical design reviews in collaboration with NASA, Axiom’s partners at Thales Alenia Space began welding and machining activities for the primary structures of Axiom Station’s first module. By now the first pieces of fabricated flight hardware are beginning to come together, and the assembled module will join Axiom in Houston soon where they will complete the final assembly and integration. Axiom Space is preparing for a late 2025 launch of the first section of its next-generation platform that will operate in low-Earth orbit.
Just months ago Axiom Space tweeted saying, “Global collaboration is built into the core of Axiom Station. Our Italian partners @Thales_Alenia_S continue to make progress on Hab One, the first module being built for the world’s first commercial space station!” In 2021, Thales Alenia Space and Axiom signed the final contract for the development of two key pressurized elements of the Axiom Space Station. The contracted company has past successful experience in building modules for the International Space Station. Thales Alenia Space is now responsible for the design, development, assembly, and test of the primary structure and the Micrometeoroid & Debris Protection System for the two Axiom modules.
Around July of 2021, the project was undergoing a detailed design phase: at the time, the four radial bulkheads for the first module had been recently developed in Thales Alenia Space facilities in Turin. These bulkheads provide the structure to which radial Common Berth Mechanisms (CBMs) and hatches will attach. Together, the four bulkheads, with their accompanying hardware form a cylindrical section, providing four ports for other station elements, including docking adapters. The cylindrical protrusions seen on the bottom half of the bulkhead will serve as a connecting unit, allowing power, data, and fluids to pass from one element to another, including Axiom modules and the ISS. All parts of this modern space station the company is working on.
When looking at other commercial space stations in the works such as Orbital Reef, Axiom has a few advantages that make them the upper hand in the future. For example, Axiom Space is the only company with the privilege of connecting its modules to the International Space Station. This partnership and strategic connection allows Axiom Space to effectively adopt and service the multinational user base of the ISS National Laboratory to seamlessly continue research and manufacturing initiatives. The goal is that the Axiom Space Station will host people, research and manufacturing that will lead development for numerous industries using techniques that are available only in microgravity.
The station is also expected to service the rapidly expanding infrastructure and solutions operating in space and provide an accessible platform for private companies and national governments to continue the research and development of breakthrough innovations. As the space industry continues to grow rapidly, Axiom is hoping to provide an important destination going forward.
NASA’s Expectations
Now that we know more about the station’s construction and timeline, we can take a closer look at new NASA documents that reveal more about this station’s future. One of these documents outlines the concept of operations NASA envisions for its use of commercial space stations. In total, the 40-page document describes what it expects from various stations in terms of capabilities, resources and operations, as well as what oversight the agency anticipates having.
For example, in one part of the document, it states that there is no requirement for the CLD partner to provide extravehicular or airlock capabilities. It goes on to say, “However, in the absence of such, the CLD partner is expected to provide concepts for installation of external Government payloads. Additional requirements and consideration will be required to ensure crew safety. Details will be discussed in future documentation.” In the future, NASA expects its astronauts on commercial space stations and commercial astronauts will work together, including those employed by the station’s owner. Those commercial astronauts, NASA envisions, will be primarily responsible for station maintenance, but NASA said it expects some sharing of those tasks. In another quote the document states, “Crew cohesion can be negatively affected if crewmembers do not share housekeeping tasks therefore NASA and the CLD provider need to jointly determine the best collaborative crew methods based on their operations concept to mitigate this concern.”
In total, NASA is working with four different companies that have proposed commercial stations. This includes three teams, led by Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman, which won funded Space Act Agreements in late 2021 through the Commercial LEO Destinations program. Axiom Space on the other hand has a separate but similar agreement with NASA. While having multiple options is great, there is concern that four is too many. During a panel at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference, Mary Lynne Dittmar, chief government and external relations officer at Axiom Space said, “We’re concerned that, with four competitors in game for very much longer, we’re just diluting what is only a nascent market, if there is a market. We’re worried that, without very clear milestones for downselect and consolidation, we’re actually going to extend the period of time it takes to get things on low Earth orbit after ISS,” she said. “We have some concerns about that approach.” As time goes on we will see how each company develops and creates its future station.
In Axiom’s case, they are continuing to focus on construction and the overall design of this station. Taking a closer look at the station itself, it starts with the Axiom Hab One, which is the name of the company’s standard station segment. This segment will be used for crew quarters and or research and manufacturing capabilities. The next segment is named Axiom Hab Two. This shares a very similar design to the standard hab with a slight extension on the end. Axiom points out this segment would be used for extended crew quarters and support additional research capacity.
Next is Axiom’s research and manufacturing facility. This includes a few different segments such as an observing room with windows in all directions, and an additional hab specifically for manufacturing purposes. Finally, you have the Axiom Power Thermal Module. On almost all of Axiom Space’s future station renderings, a large tower with solar panels is present. This is the power thermal module expected to provide an extended environment, life support, storage, and payload capabilities. Altogether, this creates Axiom Station, meant to increase access to space and provide a host of unique opportunities in low Earth orbit.
When looking at this future station and its operations, a question that often comes up has to do with the ISS connection and how that works with future retirement plans. Specifically, on February 4th, 2022, NASA announced the retirement of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2031. For Axiom, the company plans to launch its first module to the ISS in 2025, with the second, third, and fourth launching in 2026, 2027, and 2028 respectively. By the time the ISS is going to be retired, Axiom is expecting to have an almost complete and very capable station ready. It would then disconnect from the ISS and become a fully independent station in low Earth orbit. NASA knows it will continue to need low-Earth orbit microgravity research and testing to enable future missions to the Moon and Mars, including the arrival of the first humans on the Moon with the Artemis III mission as part of the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration plans. Something Axiom and its station could help with in the future.
Conclusion
Axiom Space is busy as they continue to design and create the initial modules expected to launch in 2025. They will connect with the ISS and build up over the course of a few years before separating prior to the retirement of the ISS. LEO is an immensely valuable location for a laboratory and staging area for distant missions. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.