Blue Origin puts its space station plans on hold to concentrate on moon missions instead

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has decided not to seek further NASA funding for its Orbital Reef space station project in order to tighten its focus on lunar missions.

For the past five years, Blue Origin has played a lead role in Orbital Reef, alongside partners including Sierra Space and Boeing. In late 2021, Blue Origin won a $130 million contract from NASA in the first phase of the space agency’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations program, or CLD.

Now NASA is seeking proposals for the next phase of the program, which will fund the development of orbital outposts to replace International Space Station in the 2030s. Proposals are due on Dec. 8, with contracts expected to be awarded next spring.

Blue Origin indicated that it will not submit a bid.

“Blue Origin’s mission is to build a road to space for the benefit of Earth so that millions of people can live and work in space. Establishing a sustained human presence on the moon is a critical step toward that future,” the company said in an emailed statement.

“As our role supporting NASA’s Artemis and Moon Base missions continues to grow, we’re focusing resources on capabilities that directly advance our lunar projects,” Blue Origin said. “By sharpening that focus, we can move faster on the technologies and infrastructure needed to make lunar permanence a reality.”

Orbital Reef was once touted as a “mixed-use business park” in space — and was even slated to star in a sci-fi thriller titled “Helios.” But much like that delayed film project, the space station is now on the back burner.

Orbital Reef isn’t the only initiative Blue Origin has put on hold to prioritize moon missions. In January, the company suspended its suborbital New Shepard program for at least two years for similar reasons.

Blue Origin is building landers for delivering cargo and crews to the lunar surface for NASA. An uncrewed Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander is scheduled for launch early next year, and a crew-capable Mark 2 version is scheduled for testing in low Earth orbit next year during NASA’s Artemis 3 mission.

Last week, NASA awarded Blue Origin a $94 million base contract, plus a $140 million option, to deliver a nuclear-powered rover to the lunar south pole. Blue Origin also won a spot in NASA’s broader lunar cargo delivery program. In addition, Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin subsidiary, will contribute to a lunar power-generating project known as miniCAST.

Blue Origin is pursuing several other moon development initiatives, including a program called Blue Alchemist that aims to use lunar materials to manufacture solar cells and electrical wire.

Several competitors are still working on commercial space stations. Voyager Technologies, Airbus and Northrop Grumman lead the Starlab consortium, which received CLD Phase 1 funding from NASA and is expected to put in a proposal for Phase 2.

Axiom Space and Vast are also developing outposts that could take the place of the ISS. Meanwhile, Marysville, Wash.-based Gravitics is building space station hardware for Axiom and an orbital carrier for the U.S. Space Force.