The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, and Blue Origin to foster and facilitate commercial and industrial advancements in the area of space exploration in low Earth orbit.
The signatories will explore opportunities for European payloads and/or crew members to utilize on a non-exclusive basis the low-Earth orbit space station Orbital Reef, which will offer end-to-end services, including transportation of crew and cargo, astronaut accommodations, and payload utilization services.
Through this MoU, the European Space Agency intends to develop a closer relationship with Blue Origin and Thales Alenia Space for the development of Orbital Reef. The relationship could result in services meeting Europe’s long-term research and commercial needs in alignment with ESA’s recently announced requirements.
The MoU will also support European industry in preparing to supply modules, systems, subsystems, and equipment for Orbital Reef and conducting risk-mitigation activities.
Furthermore, Thales Alenia Space and Blue Origin are considering using future qualified European LEO cargo and/or crew transportation services under commercially viable terms and conditions as a means to transport astronauts and supplies to and from the station.
“I am thrilled to witness an opening of a new economic dimension on low Earth orbit, to which this MoU is contributing,” said ESA’s Daniel Neuenschwander. “Our core mission at ESA is to support our member states’ ambitions, and to do so, we are always keen to investigate potential collaborations in a renewed ecosystem with a growing commercial segment.”
