The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), and Blue Origin to foster and facilitate commercial and industrial advancements in the area of space exploration in Low Earth Orbit. The signatories will explore opportunities for European payloads and/or crew members to utilize on a non-exclusive basis the low-Earth orbit (LEO) space station Orbital Reef, which will offer end-to-end services, including transportation of crew and cargo, astronaut accommodations, and payload utilization services.
Through this MoU, the European Space Agency intends to develop a closer relationship with Blue Origin and Thales Alenia Space for the development of Orbital Reef, which could provide services meeting Europe’s long-term research and commercial needs in alignment with ESA’s recently announced requirements. The MoU will also support European industry in preparing to supply modules, systems, subsystems, and equipment for Orbital Reef and conducting risk-mitigation activities. Furthermore, Thales Alenia Space and Blue Origin are considering using future qualified European LEO cargo and/or crew transportation services under commercially viable terms and conditions as a means to transport astronauts and supplies to and from the station.
“I am thrilled to witness the opening of a new economic dimension on Low Earth Orbit, to which this MoU is contributing,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA. “Our core mission at ESA is to support our Member States’ ambitions, and to do so, we are always keen to investigate potential collaborations in a renewed ecosystem with a growing commercial segment.”
“We’re truly honored that ESA has placed its trust in our company to explore opportunities in the LEO ecosystem together with Blue Origin to meet Europe’s commercial needs,” said Giampiero Di Paolo, Deputy CEO and Senior Vice President of Observation, Exploration, and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space. "Thales Alenia Space has played a key role in achieving humanity’s ambitions in LEO in recent years. By leveraging our expertise in space exploration infrastructures and vehicles, we’re committed to competing and investing in the development of technological solutions to empower Europe’s plans for the commercialization of low-Earth orbit. We’re excited about our collaboration with Blue Origin and are ready to implement whatever’s required to prepare for human presence and life in space, laying the groundwork for the post-ISS era while addressing new economic needs for research and science.”
"This alliance is a unique opportunity to not only enable a new era of research and progress in orbit, but to welcome the broadest spectrum of partners in constructing humanity’s future beyond Earth,” said Pat Remias, Vice President, Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering, Blue Origin. “Together, we are building foundations for industries and missions yet to be imagined."
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