cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/25502187
At the rate things are going, just launch a kitted out Starship and have that serve as a temporary space station. That should tide us over for however long it takes to design, build, and launch a newer station.
I think we should attach a rocket and shoot it into space, let it drift into eternity, instead of burning it up.
You can de-orbit the ISS when you replace it with this:
I bet Roscosmos is angling for money from the other ISS partners to keep things running.
This sucks for Axiom, who needs all the time they can get before becoming independent.
I know Bigelow Aerospace went out of business, but send up several modules of the type they were designing the big flexible ones with mylar and shit.
Sierra Space is picking up where Bigelow left off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Integrated_Flexible_Environment
Other companies are working on inflatables and the Bigelow owner was a loon, so don’t mourn that loss.
NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program is working on private space stations. Orbital Reef will include an inflatable made by Sierra Space. There’s also Starlab, which is a single launch big can, and Axiom, which is like ISS 2.0 and will bud off the ISS.
And there are other companies working in stations. Gravitics and Vast are making cans. Max Space has concepts for inflatables.