What Is Orbital Reef?

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The Dawn of the Commercial Space Station Era

For more than two decades, the International Space Station (ISS) has served as humanity’s outpost in low Earth orbit. It stands as an unparalleled achievement in global cooperation, engineering, and orbital science. Floating 250 miles above the planet, it has been continuously occupied by humans since the year 2000, hosting thousands of experiments that have advanced fields from human biology to materials science. It is, in every sense, a laboratory, a home, and a symbol.

But this era is coming to an end. The ISS is an aging piece of complex machinery. After decades of service, its systems are facing accelerating maintenance challenges, and its operational costs remain astronomical. In response, NASA and its international partners have set a retirement date. The station is scheduled to be deorbited in 2030, culminating in a controlled reentry over a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean.

This scheduled retirement presents a significant challenge for the United States and the global research community. The end of the ISS threatens to create a “space station gap” – a period, potentially lasting years, where the U.S. would have no continuous human presence or research platform in low Earth orbit. Such a gap would mean a loss of momentum in microgravity research and a potential ceding of leadership in orbit.

Faced with this, NASA has initiated a strategic pivot. Instead of designing, building, and owning a multi-billion-dollar ISS replacement, the agency is fostering a new commercial model. The goal is to transition NASA from being an owner and operator of orbital infrastructure to being just one of many customers in a new, robust, and commercially-run economy in low Earth orbit.

This strategy is designed to achieve two primary goals. First, it allows private industry to innovate and compete, which should theoretically lower costs for accessing space. Second, by purchasing services from these new commercial stations, NASA can save billions of dollars. That savings can then be refocused on the agency’s primary exploration goals: the Artemis program, which is dedicated to returning humans to the Moon and, from there, mounting the first crewed missions to Mars. In this new model, low Earth orbit becomes a vibrant commercial marketplace and a proving ground for the technologies needed for deeper space, all supported by private enterprise.

NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program

The mechanism for this strategic pivot is NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development (CLD) program. This is the government-led initiative intended to seed the development of multiple, competing commercial space stations. It’s a two-phase program designed to stimulate the private sector and ensure a successor to the ISS is ready before 2030.

Phase 1 of the CLD program, which began in 2021, was focused on “Design Maturation.” NASA used funded Space Act Agreements (SAAs) to distribute seed money to several companies, helping them mature their space station designs. In December 2021, the agency announced a total of $415.6 million in SAA awards, divided among three primary competitors.

Blue Origin, leading the Orbital Reef team, received $130 million. Nanoracks LLC (now part of Voyager Space), leading the Starlab team, received $160 million. And Northrop Grumman, which had proposed its own design, received $125.6 million.

A fourth major player, Axiom Space, operates on a slightly different, and more advanced, timeline. In 2020, Axiom won a separate, earlier NASA contract to build modules that will first attach directly to the International Space Station. These modules will later detach to become an independent, free-flying station.

The CLD market has already seen consolidation. In 2023, Northrop Grumman announced it was abandoning its independent station design and would instead join the Starlab team, contributing its own expertise. This move solidified the field, and NASA subsequently redistributed some of the un-awarded Northrop Grumman funds to the remaining partners, including Blue Origin, to advance their designs.

Now, all competitors are racing toward Phase 2 of the CLD program, the awards for which are expected in mid-2026. This is the real prize. Phase 2 isn’t about design money; it’s about NASA selecting one or more stations for official certification and, most importantly, awarding them long-term, high-value services contracts. These contracts would position NASA as the anchor tenant, providing the stable revenue stream these commercial stations need to open for business.

The structure of the CLD program reveals NASA’s core strategy. The $130 million awarded to the Orbital Reef team is a significant sum, but it’s only a tiny fraction of the total development cost, which will run into the many billions. The ISS, for comparison, cost well over $100 billion to build. The Phase 1 money isn’t meant to fundthe station’s construction. It’s seed funding, intended to guide and steer massive private investment toward a national goal.

The companies, in turn, are spending billions of their own capital. They are not just competing for the SAA money. They are competing for the all-important Phase 2 services contract. Winning that contract proves to the private market that their station is viable, certified, and has a credit-worthy anchor tenant in NASA. This is the stamp of approval needed to attract all the other commercial customers – from pharmaceutical companies to space tourists – that will be required to build a truly sustainable business. NASA is using a relatively small public investment to create a customer, inspiring a high-stakes race to build the next generation of orbital infrastructure.

A “Mixed-Use Business Park” in Space

At the heart of the Orbital Reef project is its business model, which the team consistently describes as a “mixed-use business park” in space. This concept is a fundamental departure from the ISS, which is a dedicated government-run laboratory.

Orbital Reef is not being designed as a single-purpose facility. It’s being built as a piece of orbital real estate, an infrastructure provider, and a utility. The core business is to provide a safe, reliable, and habitable platform in orbit, which it will then lease to a wide variety of “tenants” and visitors.

The model is based on shared infrastructure. Just like a terrestrial business park provides electricity, internet, and security to the companies that rent office space, Orbital Reef provides essential services like electrical power, life support, data management, and logistics. These shared services will efficiently support the proprietary needs of a diverse range of users, from government astronauts to private corporations.

The station’s entire design is “human-centered.” It’s being engineered to be inspiring, practical, and safe, with services and amenities that go far beyond the purely functional environment of previous space habitats. This is a business necessity for a station that plans to host private, non-specialist visitors alongside professional astronauts.

This model is enabled by the station’s “open system architecture.” This is a key technical and business feature. It means Orbital Reef is not a closed, monolithic structure. It’s designed for growth and scalability. The station will be equipped with standard interfaces – essentially, universal “plugs” at the locker, rack, and module level.

This open design allows any customer or nation, provided they meet the standards, to link up and add their own hardware. A foreign space agency could add its own research module. A private company could attach a dedicated manufacturing facility. As the market for space services grows, the station itself can grow. New module berths, additional vehicle ports, and expanded utilities can all be added to support increasing demand. This makes Orbital Reef a flexible, scalable platform intended to become the central hub of a new orbital economy.

The Orbital Reef Customer Base

The “mixed-use business park” model is designed to attract a wide, vibrant ecosystem of customers. Orbital Reef is being positioned to serve multiple markets simultaneously, with the idea that these different sectors will support and reinforce one another.

Space Agency Destinations: This is the anchor tenant. NASA and other international space agencies (ISAs) will be the station’s foundational customers. They are forecast to have requirements for astronaut crew training, scientific research, and as a testbed for new exploration technologies. For NASA, Orbital Reef will be the primary destination to continue the microgravity research started on the ISS and to train crews for future Artemis missions to the Moon.

Commercial Research & Production: This is the key growth market. Orbital Reef is being designed as a microgravity factory. Companies will be ableto lease space to pursue research and development, and eventually large-scale manufacturing, in the unique zero-gravity environment. The potential products are exotic and high-value: things like perfectly pure ZBLAN fiber optics (which are impossible to make on Earth), next-generation semiconductors, and flawless protein crystals for designing new pharmaceuticals.

Space Tourism & Private Astronauts: This is the most high-profile commercial driver. The station is being explicitly designed to host private astronaut missions and high-net-worth individuals seeking the “extraordinary experience” of living in orbit. The station’s human-centered design, large windows, and unique amenities are all geared toward this lucrative tourism market.

Media, Entertainment & Advertising: Orbital Reef will offer a unique setting for a growing market. Companies will be ableto use the station as a location for filming movies, commercials, or hosting global media events from orbit.

Exploration Services: The station is being offered as an integration point and “base station” for missions beyond low Earth orbit. A company planning a commercial mission to the Moon, for example, could use Orbital Reef as a logistics hub or a final checkout point before beginning its journey.

Satellite In-Orbit Support: This is a nascent but potentially large market. Orbital Reef could serve as a “space dock” for the in-orbit production, assembly, deployment, servicing, and decommissioning of satellites, a service desperately needed as LEO becomes more crowded.

To serve this diverse clientele, the Orbital Reef team plans to offer “end-to-end services.” A customer isn’t just leasing an empty room. They are buying a full-service package that includes space transportation and logistics to get their people and hardware to the station, space habitation, accommodation for their equipment, and full operational support, including the services of the onboard crew.

An Alliance of Industry Giants: The Orbital Reef Team

To execute this ambitious plan, Blue Origin and Sierra Space have assembled a consortium of industry leaders. This “dream team” approach is central to the Orbital Reef strategy, with each partner bringing a specific, best-in-class capability to the project. This alliance is designed to de-risk the massive technical challenge by distributing the work among established experts.

Blue Origin: The Architect and Heavy-Lift Provider

As a lead partner, Blue Origin is responsible for the foundational infrastructure of Orbital Reef. This includes the station’s utility systems and the large-diameter metal core modules. These modules will form the backbone of the station, housing the primary power, life support, and command-and-control systems.

Blue Origin is also providing the essential heavy-lift launch capability: the New Glenn rocket. This massive, reusable launch vehicle, and its 7-meter-diameter fairing, is what makes the station’s large-scale design possible. New Glenn is the only rocket in the partners’ inventory capable of launching the station’s large core modules. The company will also provide a “last-mile space tug” for orbital maneuvering and assembly.

Sierra Space: Habitation and Logistics Specialist

Sierra Space, the other lead partner, is focused on the station’s habitation and logistics. The company’s most significant contribution is the LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) module, a revolutionary inflatable habitat. This expandable module provides the station with its vast, multi-story living and working spaces.

In addition to the inflatable habitats, Sierra Space is developing the small-diameter metal “node” modules, which will act as the connecting joints and passageways between the larger modules. Sierra Space also provides a key logistics solution: the Dream Chaser spaceplane. This reusable, lifting-body vehicle is designed to transport both crew and cargo to the station and, uniquely, land on a conventional runway.

Boeing: The ISS Legacy

Boeing brings decades of unmatched human spaceflight experience to the team. Having served as a prime contractor for the International Space Station, Boeing is responsible for the “brains” of Orbital Reef’s operations.

The company is developing the station’s dedicated science module, a state-of-the-art laboratory for research. More importantly, Boeing is leading the development of the station’s operations, maintenance, and engineering. They will, in effect, be the “mission control” and ground crew, leveraging their long experience from the ISS program. Boeing also provides a second, redundant vehicle for crew transportation: the Starliner crew capsule.

Redwire Space: Digital and Research Infrastructure

Redwire Space is responsible for the station’s research and manufacturing hardware, as well as its digital simulation environment. The company will lead the development and operation of the microgravity research payloads, manufacturing facilities, and deployable structures, such as the station’s large solar arrays.

Redwire is also developing the “Orbital Reef digital twin.” This is a high-fidelity, time-synchronized simulation of the entire station, allowing operators to test procedures, diagnose problems, and plan missions in a virtual environment before executing them in space.

Genesis Engineering Solutions: A New Way to Spacewalk

Genesis Engineering Solutions is providing one of the station’s most unique pieces of technology: the Single Person Spacecraft (SPS). This is a small, piloted vehicle that an operator can “wear” as an alternative to a traditional spacesuit. Designed for both routine external maintenance and tourist excursions, the SPS will allow for rapid, safe access to the outside of the station.

Arizona State University: The Academic Gateway

Arizona State University (ASU) leads the academic and public outreach arm of the consortium. ASU manages a global consortium of universities, acting as the “front door” for the academic research community. This group provides research advisory services, helps connect nations and corporations to the opportunities on Orbital Reef, and is developing the ethical and policy guidelines for conducting research in this new commercial domain.

Amazon: Earth-Based Expertise for Orbit

The partnership also includes Amazon, bringing its world-class logistics and cloud computing expertise to the project. Amazon Supply Chain is lending its expertise in end-to-end fulfillment to help design the complex and reliable supply chain required to support the station.

Simultaneously, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is providing the robust cloud computing backbone. AWS will support the station’s development, design, and operations, managing the massive amounts of data, networking, and communications for the entire program.

This consortium model is a double-edged sword. While this “who’s who” list of partners de-risks the engineering – placing each component in the hands of a specialist – it massively increases the programmatic risk. Managing the complex web of contracts, technical interfaces, and competing timelines between so many independent, powerful corporations is an immense management challenge in itself.

The 2023 reports of a “rocky partnership” between the leads, Blue Origin and Sierra Space, are a direct and predictable symptom of this complexity. The project’s success doesn’t just hinge on whether the technology works. It hinges on whether this complex alliance can be managed effectively. Orbital Reef’s greatest strength, the combined expertise of its team, is also its greatest operational vulnerability.

The Architecture of the Reef: A Tour of the Station

The Orbital Reef station, in its baseline configuration, is designed to be a spacious and capable platform. It will offer an internal pressurized volume of 830 cubic meters – roughly one-third the volume of the entire ISS, but in a more modern, open-plan layout. It is being designed to support a permanent crew of 10 people.

The Core Module: The Station’s Backbone

The foundation of the station will be Blue Origin’s large-diameter metal modules. These form the “utility core” of the Reef. Think of them as the station’s central trunk, basement, and powerhouse all in one. These modules will house the primary life support systems – the air-cleaning and water-recycling hardware – as well as the station’s main power distribution, command computers, and guidance systems. They are the foundational building blocks to which all other modules will connect. Their large, open-plan size is a direct result of being designed to launch on the 7-meter-diameter fairing of the New Glenn rocket.

The LIFE Habitat: Expanding Space with Softgoods

The most visually distinct and innovative parts of the station are Sierra Space’s LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) modules. These are not traditional rigid “metal cans.” They are “softgoods” modules, meaning they are built from layers of high-strength, flexible fabrics.

The key material is Vectran, an advanced polymer fabric weave that is sewn into the module’s “skin.” This soft, flexible module is launched in a compressed state, packed tightly inside a rocket fairing. Once in orbit, it is attached to a station port and inflated with breathable air. As the module pressurizes, the Vectran weaves pull taut, creating a rigid structure that is, pound-for-pound, stronger than steel.

This technology has a huge advantage: it allows an enormous habitat to be launched on a single rocket. The first LIFE module planned for Orbital Reef is a three-story structure, measuring 27 feet in diameter. This single module provides a massive amount of open, configurable volume.

The interior is being designed to comfortably house four astronauts. The three-story layout will include everything needed for long-duration stays: private sleep and hygiene quarters, a galley, exercise equipment, a medical center, and even Sierra Space’s “Astro Garden,” an onboard system to grow fresh produce for the crew.

This “inflatable” technology isn’t just theoretical. Sierra Space has conducted an extensive ground-based testing campaign. The company has built and tested multiple sub-scale and full-scale LIFE modules, pressurizing them until they intentionally burst. In these tests, the modules have consistently exceeded NASA’s stringent safety requirements by a wide margin, proving the “softgoods” design is incredibly strong, durable, and ready for space.

The Science Module: A Laboratory in Orbit

The “R&D wing” of the business park will be Boeing’s dedicated science module. This module will be a state-of-the-art laboratory in orbit. Leveraging the decades of lessons learned from operating the Destiny laboratory on the ISS, Boeing will outfit this module with the racks, research facilities, and support systems needed by NASA and other commercial research clients. This will be the primary destination for companies pursuing breakthroughs in biotechnology, materials science, and other fields that benefit from a microgravity environment.

The Single Person Spacecraft: The Future of Extra-Vehicular Activity

One of Orbital Reef’s most standout features is the Single Person Spacecraft (SPS), provided by Genesis Engineering Solutions. This is a complete rethinking of the “spacewalk,” or Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA).

Instead of a bulky, pressurized spacesuit, the SPS is a small, one-person “pod” that an operator gets inside of. It’s essentially a miniature, personal spacecraft. This design has several revolutionary advantages.

First, it provides a “shirt-sleeve” environment. The operator sits inside at normal cabin pressure and atmosphere, wearing a simple flight suit. They don’t need to wear a complex and uncomfortable pressurized suit.

Second, it eliminates the need for “pre-breathing.” A traditional spacewalk requires an astronaut to spend hours breathing pure oxygen beforehand to purge nitrogen from their bloodstream, a process necessary to avoid “the bends.” The SPS uses the same atmosphere as the station, so an operator can get in, seal the hatch, and be outside in a matter of minutes. This allows for rapid access to space for urgent repairs or opportunistic tasks.

Third, the SPS has its own propulsion. The operator can fly the pod directly to an external worksite using its own thrusters, rather than slowly and manually pulling themselves along handrails. The vehicle can be piloted directly or even operated remotely from inside the station.

Finally, it’s equipped with robotic arms, or “advanced precision manipulators,” allowing the operator to perform complex maintenance tasks. This technology is being developed for two distinct purposes: to make routine station-keeping and maintenance cost-effective and routine, and to serve as the ultimate “tourist excursion,” offering visitors an unparalleled and safe way to experience the outside of the station.

The Digital Twin: Operating the Station on Earth

A key enabling technology for this complex station is the “digital twin,” provided by Redwire Space. This is not a physical piece of hardware on the station, but a comprehensive, high-fidelity virtual replica of it that runs constantly on computers back on Earth.

This digital twin is time-synchronized with the real Orbital Reef. It’s a living simulation that models every aspect of the station: its hardware, its software, its orbital position, its current power levels, and the environmental conditions.

This virtual station has three main purposes. The first is risk reduction. Before astronauts or ground controllers attempt a new, complex, or dangerous procedure on the real station – like docking a new vehicle or performing a difficult repair – they can practice it dozens of times on the digital station to ensure it works.

The second is diagnostics. If a component on the real station fails, engineers can use the digital twin to run simulations, test “what-if” scenarios, and quickly pinpoint the cause of the problem and the safest way to fix it.

The third is mission planning. The digital twin allows the Orbital Reef team to optimize the station’s resources, plan complex research campaigns, and reduce overall development costs by “building” and “flying” new components in the simulation long before any hardware is bent.

Designing for Humans: The Onboard Experience

A central pillar of the Orbital Reef design is its “human-centered” or “people-centric” approach. This focus on the human experience is a direct reflection of its business model. The ISS was built for elite, highly-trained, professional government astronauts. Orbital Reef is being built to host a “mixed-use” clientele that includes “non-specialist crews,” corporate researchers, and space tourists. These customers will have very different expectations for comfort, usability, and the overall “experience” of living in space.

The goal, as described by the design team, is to create an environment where humans can “thrive, not just survive.” This marks a deliberate departure from the cluttered, purely functional, and lab-like interiors of the ISS. The Orbital Reef team, working with design consultants like Hassell studio, is focused on creating a more streamlined, organized, and inspiring aesthetic.

This new field of “space-based hospitality architecture” is not just about making the station look good; it’s about solving the human-factor challenges of living in orbit. This includes several key features.

Large, panoramic windows will be a prominent feature, providing residents with stunning views of Earth, our “blue origin.” This is considered essential for the psychological well-being of the crew and a primary selling point for the tourism market.

The station’s interior will feature a dedicated “social hub.” This will be a common area, separate from work and sleep stations, where the crew can gather. The design includes a central table specifically engineered for microgravity living, intended to improve the social experience of dining and collaborating in space.

The layout will also feature distinct quarters for personal and business use, allowing residents to have a clear separation between their work and personal lives. The two-floor layout of the LIFE habitat, for example, is being designed to house a crew of six, with dedicated sleep and hygiene quarters, a galley, and exercise equipment.

This design work is not just happening on computers. In April 2025, NASA reported that Blue Origin had completed a major “human-in-the-loop” testing milestone. To do this, the company built full-scale, life-sized mockups of the habitable module’s floors.

Test subjects, including individuals and small groups, then performed “day-in-the-life” walkthroughs inside these mockups. They simulated microgravity operations, including mundane but necessary tasks like cargo transfer, trash handling, and moving between modules through hatches. Participants provided direct feedback on the usability of the private crew quarters, the dining area, the lavatory, and the research labs.

The observations from these tests are now being used to provide concrete design recommendations. This feedback will refine the final layout of the station, the placement of mobility aids like handrails and foot restraints, and the overall ergonomics and workload of living and working inside Orbital Reef. This iterative, human-focused testing is fundamental to building a station that is not just an engineering marvel, but a practical and comfortable place to live.

The Orbital Supply Chain: Getting to and from the Reef

A “mixed-use business park” is useless without roads. A core part of the Orbital Reef service is the “end-to-end” logistics of getting people and cargo to and from the station. The station’s open architecture is being designed to be compatible with almost all in-operation and planned spacecraft, but its primary construction and servicing will rely on a dedicated supply chain provided by its own partners.

Assembly by New Glenn

The sheer scale of Orbital Reef is made possible by Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. This is the heavy-lift vehicle that will do the “construction” work. New Glenn is a reusable rocket, but its most important feature for Orbital Reef is its massive 7-meter-diameter payload fairing, which offers twice the internal volume of standard 5-meter rockets.

This massive fairing is what enables the station’s design philosophy. It is the only vehicle in the consortium’s fleet large enough to launch the large-diameter core modules that form the station’s backbone. It’s also what will carry the compressed, three-story LIFE habitats into orbit. The New Glenn’s ability to haul 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit is the foundation of the entire assembly plan.

Crew and Cargo Ferries: Dream Chaser and Starliner

Once the station is built, it needs a constant stream of supplies and crew rotations. Orbital Reef has two primary vehicles designated for this “ferry” service, providing redundancy and flexibility.

The first is the Sierra Space Dream Chaser. This is a lifting-body spaceplane designed to transport both crew and cargo. After launching on a conventional rocket, it will rendezvous and dock with Orbital Reef. Its unique advantage is its landing. Like the Space Shuttle, the Dream Chaser is designed to land on a conventional runway, anywhere in the world. This allows for a gentle, low-g reentry, which is ideal for returning sensitive scientific experiments or delicate manufactured goods to Earth.

The second vehicle is the Boeing Starliner. This is a more traditional crew capsule, which provides a redundant and proven path for ferrying astronauts to and from the station. Having both the Starliner and Dream Chaser available for crew transport ensures that Orbital Reef is not reliant on a single transportation system, a key lesson from the ISS program.

The Commercial Space Race: Orbital Reef in Context

Orbital Reef is not being developed in a vacuum. It is one of several major contenders in a high-stakes competition to become America’s next space station. All are vying for NASA’s coveted Phase 2 CLD certification and the long-term commercial market. As of late 2025, the competitive landscape is defined by three main, NASA-funded players, each with a fundamentally different strategy.

Axiom Station: The First Mover

Axiom Space is the undisputed leader in hardware development and timeline. Their strategy is conservative and incremental. In 2020, Axiom won a NASA contract to build modules that will attach to the ISS while it is still in orbit.

Axiom’s plan involves launching its first components – the Payload Power Thermal Module (PPTM) and Habitat-1 (Hab-1) – and connecting them to an ISS docking port. Over the next few years, they will add more modules, including a second habitat and an airlock. This “Axiom Segment” will be tested and operated while still attached to the ISS. Then, just before the ISS is deorbited in 2030, the entire segment will detach and become a free-flying, independent commercial space station.

As of late 2025, Axiom is “far outpacing” its rivals. Primary structures for the first module are being welded, and the first launch is slated for 2027, with the second in 2028. Their approach minimizes risk by using the ISS as a scaffold for power, life support, and assembly.

Starlab: The Single-Launch Contender

The Starlab team, a joint venture of Voyager Technologies, Airbus, and (as of 2023) Northrop Grumman, is taking the opposite approach. Their strategy is monolithic, or “all-at-once.”

Their design consists of a single, large 8-meter-diameter metallic habitat and service module. This entire station is designed to be launched in one piece and be operational almost immediately upon reaching orbit. It will have a crew capacity of four.

Starlab is moving extremely fast on its design. It’s on track to complete its Critical Design Review (CDR) in late 2025. In a major strategic move, the team has selected SpaceX’s Starship as its launch vehicle – the only rocket in the world with a fairing large enough to hold the 8-meter module. In November 2025, the team also named Leidos as its primary assembly and integration provider. With a target launch date of 2028, Starlab is pursuing a high-risk, high-reward strategy: if the single launch on Starship works, they will have a complete station in orbit overnight.

Vast: The Dark Horse

A third, disruptive contender, Vast, has emerged as a dark horse. Operating without the initial CLD funding, Vast is moving at an incredible pace with its own small station, Haven-1, planned for launch as early as 2025. While Haven-1 is small, the company has ambitious plans for larger follow-on stations, including one with artificial gravity. Vast’s speed and disruptive approach have made it a serious player that could capture early market share.

A Comparative Look

This competitive landscape reveals three distinct philosophies. Axiom is the conservative incumbent, using the ISS to de-risk its path. Starlab is the aggressive gambler, betting its entire business on a single, massive launch on a next-generation rocket. Orbital Reef is the “ecosystem” builder, creating a complex, modular, and highly ambitious station, but one whose success is inextricably linked to its own partners’ unproven hardware.

As of late 2025, Axiom is winning the hardware race. Starlab has the most aggressive launch plan. And Orbital Reef has what is arguably the most ambitious and scalable long-term design, but it is also the most programmatically complex.

From this competitive context, the status of Orbital Reef in late 2025 appears to be one of steady, but slow, progress. The project is “enigmatic” and, by most public metrics, “lagging behind” its chief rivals. This “sluggish pace” has led to concerns about its timeline and ability to compete for the all-important Phase 2 contract.

The 2023 Partnership Strain and Re-commitment

The project’s complexity came to a head in 2023, with public reports of a “rocky partnership” between the two lead partners, Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Sources indicated that hiring for the project had stalled and that both companies were prioritizing their other, more immediate projects. For a time, it appeared the two partners might even go their separate ways.

This period of uncertainty was resolved in October 2023. After discussions, both companies issued public statements re-committing to the project. They confirmed they were continuing to work together to complete the Phase 1 CLD contract and were “all in” on competing for Phase 2. While this re-commitment was a positive sign, the episode highlighted the immense programmatic friction inherent in such a complex consortium.

A Project “Lagging Behind”?

As of mid-2025, reports from industry analysts confirm that Orbital Reef is “firmly in last place” among the CLD contenders in terms of schedule. This slow pace is not, by all appearances, due to a technical problem with the station’s design. Instead, it’s a direct consequence of a “parent-child” problem.

Orbital Reef is programmatically dependent on its parent companies, Blue Origin and Sierra Space, who are both occupied with other massive, high-priority projects.

Blue Origin has been focused on the first launch of its New Glenn rocket (which finally flew in early 2025) and on developing its Blue Moon lunar lander, a high-priority contract for NASA’s Artemis program.

Similarly, Sierra Space has been consumed with “wrangling” its first Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity. That vehicle’s debut demonstration flight to the ISS has been beset by delays and has slipped by at least a year.

This is the core of Orbital Reef’s delay. The New Glenn rocket is the vehicle required to launch the station’s core modules. The Dream Chaser spaceplane is a primary logistics vehicle to service it. The Orbital Reef project simply cannot proceed to flight until its own partners’ enabling technologies are fully operational and flying reliably. Its schedule is held captive by the timelines of these other, larger programs.

The Shifting Timeline

The practical result of these dependencies is a shifting timeline. The station’s original operational date of 2027, announced in 2021, is no longer considered viable.

A key development milestone, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), tells the story. The PDR was originally scheduled for 2023. It was then pushed to mid-2024. As of mid-2025, it appears this PDR is still not complete. This puts Orbital Reef significantly behind its competitor, Starlab, which is on track to complete its Final Design Review (the CDR) by the end of 2025.

Furthermore, the recent delay of the Dream Chaser’s debut mission to late 2026 at the earliest makes a 2027 station launch impossible. A more realistic operational date for Orbital Reef, assuming it wins a Phase 2 contract, is now estimated to be post-2028, at the earliest.

Recent Progress and Milestones

While the high-level programmatic schedule has slipped, this does not mean development has stopped. On the component level, the Orbital Reef team has continued to make and demonstrate real, tangible progress.

Sierra Space has had major successes with its LIFE module. The company has completed its full-scale burst test campaigns, proving the “softgoods” technology is robust and ready.

Blue Origin, for its part, completed four critical NASA milestones for the station’s life support systems in early 2024, demonstrating progress on the hardware for air and water reclamation.

And the “human-in-the-loop” testing, conducted in April 2025 using life-sized mockups, shows that the internal habitat design is actively maturing from a concept into a refined, human-rated space.

This recent progress indicates that while the overall program is delayed by its external dependencies, the engineering work on the station’s key components is still moving forward.

Summary

Orbital Reef stands as one of the most ambitious and visionary projects of the new commercial space era. It is conceived not just as a laboratory, but as a “mixed-use business park” in orbit – a scalable, human-centered platform designed to be the central hub of a vibrant low Earth orbit economy.

Its strength lies in its “dream team” of partners – Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Boeing, Redwire, and others – who bring a massive portfolio of expertise to the table. Its design is equally powerful, featuring innovative technologies like the vast, three-story inflatable LIFE habitats and the unique, suit-free Single Person Spacecraft.

However, the project is currently lagging in the high-stakes race to replace the International Space Station. Its two main competitors, Axiom Station and Starlab, are both further along in their development and manufacturing timelines.

The primary reason for this delay is programmatic, not technical. Orbital Reef’s timeline is inextricably tied to the development of its own partners’ key enabling systems: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, both of which have faced their own significant delays. The project cannot fly until its own “parents” are fully operational.

Despite this, engineering work on the station’s core components continues to advance, with successful tests of its inflatable structures, life support systems, and internal mockups. The project’s future now hinges on its ability to navigate its own immense internal complexity and on the successful flight campaigns of its partners. Its ability to win a coveted NASA Phase 2 contract, and ultimately to open its doors as a “new address in LEO,” will depend on whether this powerful alliance can finally align its many moving pieces and deliver on its grand vision.

Last update on 2025-12-06 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API