A rendering of the Orbital Reef private space station, set for operation in the second half of the 2020s. Photo: Orbital Reef

Sierra Space and Blue Origin have completed the system definition review (SDR) with NASA for the Orbital Reef commercial space station. The SDR establishes the functional baseline of the project, demonstrating to NASA that the space station design is feasible and achievable. Now the project can proceed to the design phase. 

NASA awarded Blue Origin $130 million in December 2021 for development of Orbital Reef as part of its Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development (CLDP) program to explore commercial replacements for the aging International Space Station (ISS) . Orbital Reef is described as a “business park” in space for research, industrial, international, commercial, and tourism customers. The Orbital Reef team includes Amazon Supply Chain, Amazon Web Services, Arizona State University, Boeing, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Redwire Space

Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman also received similar contracts to develop their own space station concepts. 

The SDR was conducted between mid-June and mid-July and examined the proposed system architecture and the flow-down to all functional elements of the Orbital Reef system. The station is expected to be operational by 2027.

“This SDR moves Orbital Reef forward,” said Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of Advanced Development Programs at Blue Origin. “We are meeting the needs of both the commercial marketplace and NASA’s requirements. Orbital Reef will change the game for human space flight in Earth orbit.”