The International Space Station is a technological marvel.
Beginning with the Zarya power and propulsion module launched in 1998, through the installation of its latest solar array last year, the ISS took more than a quarter-century, 42 space launches, and $150 billion to build. 108.5 meters end-to-end, the ISS boasts 1,0005 cubic meters of pressurized volume on its inside, of which roughly 39% (388 cubic meters) are habitable.
But science has come a long way since 1998. As the ISS approaches the end of its lifespan in 2031 or thereabouts, it might now be possible to replace the space station with something bigger, and even more useful -- with one single space launch.
How?
As you probably know, there are currently at least four separate teams of companies working with NASA to replace the ISS with one or more new, privately owned and operated space station(s):
- Privately held Vast Space and Axiom Space both have plans to build separate, independent space stations in Low Earth Orbit.
- Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Boeing, and Redwire have teamed up to build an "Orbital Reef" space station.
- And Voyager Space is cooperating with multiple companies and space agencies, including Europe's Airbus (EADSY 0.89%), American defense contractor Northrop Grumman (NOC -1.56%), and -- intriguingly -- Hilton Hotels (HLT -0.89%) to build a "Starlab" space station.
It's this last team we'll be talking about today.
Image source: Getty Images.
Starlab + Starship
On Jan. 31, the Starlab space station team announced that it had hired SpaceX to launch its entire Starlab space station (or at least the first module of it; there may be more) to Low Earth Orbit "in a single mission prior to the decommissioning of the International Space Station." (Specifically, Starlab is targeting a 2028 launch.)
SpaceX will use its new Starship megarocket for this mission. Furthermore, "Starlab will ... be fully outfitted on the ground, and ready to permanently host four crew members in LEO to conduct microgravity research and advanced scientific discovery," say the companies.
But again, how is this possible? How can you replace a mega-space station that took 42 rocket launches to assemble, with a new space station put in orbit with a single launch?
As SpaceX senior VP for commercial business Tom Ochinero explains, ""Starlab's single-launch solution [will] demonstrate not only what is possible, but how the future of commercial space is happening now."
Admittedly, Starship hasn't itself reached orbit yet. But once it does, it will be a really big rocket, offering unmatched performance. Existing rocket ships built by Russian, American, and European companies max out at 4.2 meters in diameter, meaning that's about as big around as an ISS module can be, currently. (After all, you can't carry cargo that's bigger than the rocket ship that carries it.)
Starship, in contrast, will boast a 22m long cargo section measuring nine meters across (internal) at it widest point, such that it can enclose a payload (i.e. Starlab) measuring eight or more meters across. And while it's been a few years since my last geometry class, according to the experts at Payload Space, that works out to 1,000 cubic meters of cargo capacity.
That should be more than enough to replace, with one single launch, ISS and its own 1,000-ish cubic meters of pressurized volume. When you consider further that less than half of ISS's pressurized modules are considered "habitable," Starlab will launch as a single module, all of which should be habitable; it seems a Starlab launched aboard a single Starship will actually offer more than twice the useful space as an ISS assembled piece by piece by endless piece over the course of dozens of (much more expensive) launches.
What this means for space investors
Last week we explored how SpaceX and its Starship are driving down the cost of space launch, from as much as $400 million per rocket just a few years ago to perhaps as little as $10 million per launch a few years from now. This announcement from Starlab illustrates how Starship can also expand the possibilities of what companies will be able to do in space by vastly increasing the size of objects that can be put in orbit.
To put this in perspective, the 1,000 cubic meters of internal volume that Starship can launch is roughly 10% more volume than the passenger compartment on a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. It's more volume than three modest, 1500 sq. ft. suburban houses placed side by side. It's enough room to, for example, set up a small factory manufacturing technology that can only be produced in zero gravity, or even operate multiple B&Bs in orbit (remember, Hilton is a partner on this space station).
And Starship will be able to put this much floorplan in orbit per launch.
Big as the Starship-and-Starlab collaboration already is, even bigger things could be coming. If you can find a way to invest in SpaceX stock today, I'd give serious consideration to doing just that.
