On Thursday 9 November, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it, Airbus and Voyager Space signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining their collaboration on the Starlab space station in the post-International Space Station (ISS) era, at the Seville Space Summit on 6 and 7 November.
According to ESA, the trilateral agreement underlines the intention of the parties to jointly foster scientific and technological development and to explore opportunities for collaboration in connection with the ISS low-Earth orbit destinations.
“This agreement reflects ESA’s ambition to enable a smooth transition from the ISS to the sustainable operation of human and robotic infrastructure in low Earth orbit after 2030, including through commercial services,” according to the press release.
Initially, the collaboration will focus on, but not be limited to, exploring the possibilities of sustainable access to space for Europe with the Starlab space station. This could include access to the Starlab space station for ESA and its Member States for astronaut missions and long-term sustained research activities and for the development of commercial activities. It could also involve contributions to research projects on future missions and the establishment of a complete ‘end-to-end’ ecosystem with Starlab as the destination in low-Earth orbit and a possible European transport system developed by ESA. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)