Life After the ISS Continues to Take Shape

The pathway for a post-ISS Europe is taking shape after a Memorandum of Understanding was formed between the ESA, Airbus and Voyager Space.

The trilateral MoU outlines the collaboration of all parties on the Starlab space station, ensuring that the parties "intend to commonly foster science and technology development" while ensuring continued European access to space in 2030 and beyond. 

Additional bullet points outline a rough sort of ecosystem between the parties, with astronaut missions, long-term research, and commercial activities given some loose structure in the tripartite agreement. Research is expected to kick off in the themes of advanced robotics, automation/artificial intelligence, and biological sciences. 

This time around, the ESA doesn't seem too keen on leaving capabilities outside its purview, with the MoU prompting the establishment of "a complete ‘end-to-end’ ecosystem comprising the Starlab space station as a low-Earth orbit destination and a potential ESA-developed European transportation system for both cargo and crew, leveraging standardised interfaces in the interest of an open access policy."

“ESA appreciates the transatlantic industry initiative for the commercial Starlab space station, and the potential that its strong European footprint holds for significant European industrial and institutional contributions to, and use of, said station,” said Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency. “Our teams are looking forward to working closely with the Starlab teams here in Europe and in the US.”

“This agreement with the European Space Agency is critical as we continue to foster international collaboration in the space domain and move towards succeeding the International Space Station with Starlab,” said Matt Kuta, President, Voyager Space. “We look forward to working with Airbus and ESA to extend Europe’s footprint in space and ensure they remain a leader in the new generation of commercial space exploration.”

“At Airbus, we are very pleased that ESA is continuing to look to the future and demonstrating such a keen interest in Starlab,” said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space. “Our collaboration on this next-generation space station builds on a long and successful partnership between ESA and Airbus in developing and operating a wide range of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft.”

FMI: www.airbus.com