Space Station Orbital Reef, funded by NASA and operated by Blue Origin, has reached significant milestones by just passing Life Support System tests.
The partnership between NASA and Blue Origin, established in 2021, focuses on developing technologies to manage air and water resources essential for space travel. The tests are crucial for sustaining human life in space by ensuring clean air and water.
Collaborating with commercial entities, NASA aims to create new space stations capable of supporting its missions and those of other organizations. This initiative ensures a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit, benefiting both space exploration and people on Earth.
Living and working in space requires a carefully controlled environment. Similar to the International Space Station, Orbital Reef‘s environmental control and life support system maintains the necessary conditions for astronauts.
Recycling and reclaiming water and oxygen minimizes the need to transport additional supplies from Earth, making space missions more sustainable.
Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, said:
“These milestones are critical to ensuring that a commercial destination can support human life so NASA astronauts can continue to have access to low Earth orbit to conduct important scientific research in the unique microgravity environment. Additionally, each milestone that is completed allows NASA to gain insight into our partner’s progress on station design and development.”
source NASA
