NASA touts key progress on Starlab space station, a successor to the ISS

NASA is actively preparing for a future beyond the International Space Station (ISS) by fostering a commercial marketplace in low Earth orbit. The agency recently announced that Starlab, one of the commercially developed space stations it supports, has successfully completed five key development and design landmarks.

This progress marks a critical step in NASA's strategy to transition from being an operator of a space station to becoming one of many customers for services in orbit. NASA is currently facilitating the design and development of multiple commercial space stations.

As we work toward the future of low Earth orbit, these milestones demonstrate Starlab’s dedication to building a commercial space station that can support human life and advance scientific research. — Angela Hart, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program.

Having cleared its preliminary design and safety reviews, the Starlab project will now advance to detailed design and hardware development. The next major step is a critical design review scheduled for later this year, which will assess design maturity before construction can begin.

In the most tangible sign of progress, the company has started building a full-scale, high-fidelity mockup of the station. This mockup will be located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it will be used for “human-in-the-loop” testing to evaluate crew training, interior design, and in-flight procedures. The planned Starlab design consists of a habitat and a service module that will be sent to orbit on a single launch.