A single Starship rocket will be used by SpaceX, Voyager Space, an up-and-coming space company, and Airbus, a well-known aerospace manufacturer, to send the private space station Starlab into orbit.
The project has a significant scope, and the parties involved have not yet provided a precise date for its completion. That being said, Starlab Space insists it can launch its space station successfully before 2030, when NASA plans to decommission the International Space Station.
Elon Musk’s private space company has now added support to Voyager Space and Airbus’s January 9 announcement of their collaboration on the Starlab project. It is anticipated that this support will provide the businesses a big edge as they work to enter orbit.
CEO of Voyager Space Dylan Taylor said that the company has selected SpaceX’s Starship to launch its Starlab space station into orbit, pointing to the company’s outstanding performance history and dependability. Taylor claims that SpaceX is the unmatched leader in the industry for high-cadence launches, and Voyager Space is pleased that Starlab was sent into orbit by Starship in a single mission.
The next-generation space laboratory, Starlab, will carry on the heritage of the International Space Station (ISS) by providing a cutting-edge environment for academic study, technological advancement, and business creativity. Starlab will guarantee a continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit while focusing on serving a broad customer base of space agencies, researchers, and businesses from across the world. This will present unmatched prospects for collaboration and growth in space exploration.
One thing and only one thing—SpaceX’s enormous Starship launch platform—will make this project successful. As SpaceNews points out, only the Starship has the strength to launch the space station as a whole into orbit because of its massive dimensions—roughly 26 feet in wide.
The plan states that because SpaceX’s first two large-scale launch attempts ended in major explosions, the company still needs to prove the viability of its large-scale launch platform. Nonetheless, a third flight test is planned for later this year.
In order to return humans to the Moon’s surface in the upcoming years, NASA plans to use Starship as a key component of their lunar landing mission.
Despite major challenges, SpaceX is still optimistic about launching Starlab.
In a statement, SpaceX’s senior vice president of commercial business, Tom Ochinero, said that Starlab’s single-shot launch demonstrated the commercial space industry’s potential as well as its current state of affairs. With the ability to support both the goal of developing life on numerous planets and sustaining human presence in low-Earth orbit, the SpaceX crew is excited about utilising the Starship to launch Starlab.