27/10/2021, 12:10 Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos to build a business park in space | World | The Times

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An image of the Orbital Reef space station was released by Blue Origin, the company set up
by Jeff Bezos, left
J O E R A E D L E / G E T T Y I M AG E S ; B L U E O R I G I N / A F P / G E T T Y

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Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos to build a

business park in space
Jacqui Goddard, Miami

Wednesday October 27 2021, 12.01am, The Times

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Blue Origin has announced plans to build a “mixed use business

park” in space, offering tenants and visitors an opportunity to
live and work in orbit.

Blue Origin unveiled plans for Orbital Reef, which the company
says will provide a platform for commerce, scientific research
and tourism by the end of the decade.

“The station will open the next chapter of human space

exploration and development by facilitating the growth of a
vibrant ecosystem
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27/10/2021, 12:10 Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos to build a business park in space | World | The Times

company said. “Designed to open multiple new markets in

World space, Orbital Reef will provide anyone with the opportunity to
establish their own address on orbit.”

It said customers would include “seasoned space agencies, high-

tech consortia, sovereign nations without space programmes,
media and travel companies, funded entrepreneurs and
sponsored inventors and future-minded investors”.

Brent Sherwood, senior vice-president of advanced

development programmes, said: “A vibrant ecosystem will grow
in low-Earth orbit, generating new discoveries, new products,
new entertainments and global awareness.”

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The announcement offered little insight into how a company

that has only just got suborbital passenger rockets to the edge of
space will pull off the feat. The International Space Station (ISS)
was a collaboration between 15 nations and took $150 billion,
ten years and 30 missions to assemble. Yet Blue Origin has
mustered a respectable line-up of partners that include the
aerospace companies Boeing and Sierra Space, Genesis
Engineering Solutions and researchers at a dozen universities.

The company has also long been working on New Glenn, an

orbital rocket that could ultimately be used to transport some of
the new station’s components. John Mulholland, Boeing’s vice-
president and programme manager for the ISS, said: “This is
exciting for us because this project does not duplicate the
immensely successful and enduring ISS but rather goes a step
further to fulfil a unique position in low-Earth orbit where it
can serve a diverse array of companies and host non-specialist
crews.”
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27/10/2021, 12:10 Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos to build a business park in space | World | The Times

World

The announcement of a business park in space comes amid a

rapid expansion of commercial activity beyond Earth’s
atmosphere. Last week Nanoracks and Voyager Space, in
conjunction with Lockheed Martin, revealed that they were also
planning a private space station, which is to be called Starlab.

Axiom Space, a Houston company led largely by former Nasa

executives and managers, including the space agency’s one-time
ISS programme manager Mike Suffredini, also plans to begin
construction of a new station by 2024, under contract to Nasa.

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Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice-president of the Arizona State

University’s Interplanetary Initiative, which will head an
advisory council to Orbital Reef, said: “Throughout the 20th
century space exploration has been the realm of the hero, the
unreachable astronaut, the one special person. But with Orbital
Reef, we will make it accessible for so many people who can
participate in many different ways.” She added: “We will
become an interplanetary species.”

Space Companies Jeff Bezos

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