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Stephen Clark - Aug 4, 2023 12:00 am UTC

Voyager Space, one of several US companies formulating concepts for new commercial space stations, has established a joint venture with Airbus to co-develop an Earth-orbiting research outpost called Starlab.

The companies announced the joint venture Wednesday, saying they plan to field a successor to the International Space Station. "The US-led joint venture will bring together world-class leaders in the space domain, while further uniting American and European interests in space exploration," the two companies said in a joint statement.

Voyager has been managing the development of a privately owned space station called Starlab for several years. The Starlab station concept was one of three selected by NASA for funding in 2021, alongside projects from separate industry teams led by Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. Voyager's proposal took home the largest NASA funding award—$160 million—to go toward design and engineering work for the Starlab station through a cost-sharing public-private partnership arrangement.

The European aerospace giant Airbus is now taking a larger role in the Starlab program. Following an announcement in January that Airbus was joining Voyager's Starlab team, the joint venture unveiled this week cements Airbus as a co-owner of the space station. "With a track record of innovation and technological firsts, Airbus prides itself on partnering with companies that are looking to change history,” said Jean-Marc Nasr, head of space systems at Airbus, in a press release.

Voyager is a Colorado-based holding company with a portfolio that includes Nanoracks, which helps facilitate access to the International Space Station for scientific experiments and technology demonstration payloads. Nanoracks also owns a commercial pressurized airlock module at the ISS to enable payloads to pass between the lab's internal cabin and the outside environment of space.

NASA wants to have at least one commercial space station flying by the time the International Space Station is due for retirement in 2030, ensuring US astronauts and researchers can continue working continuously in low-Earth orbit. This strategy, NASA says, will allow government resources to focus on deep space exploration, such as the Artemis lunar program and eventual human missions to Mars.

Aside from its agreements with Voyager, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman, NASA also has a partnership with Axiom Space, which is building a privately owned module to be attached to the International Space Station in the next few years. Axiom envisions that module will eventually become the centerpiece of its own independent space station in orbit.