The International Space Station Will Get a New, Private Airlock in 2019

NASA has given a small, Houston-based company the green light to move ahead with development of a private airlock that will be attached t...

NASA has given a small, Houston-based company the green light to move ahead with development of a private airlock that will be attached to the International Space Station. The large, half-cylinder-shaped airlock, about two meters in diameter and 1.8 meters long, would become the first permanent commercial addition to the orbiting laboratory.

Ars first reported development of the commercial airlock a year ago, but now the company, Nanoracks, has made substantial progress toward flying the device in 2019. In addition to approval from NASA, the company has reached an agreement with Boeing to manufacture and install a “berthing mechanism” that connects pressurized modules of the space station.
Boeing’s investment in the $15 million project is significant, as the aerospace giant already holds the primary contract to operate and maintain the station for NASA. As part of the agreement, Boeing will not only assist with integrating the airlock into the station, it will also help develop a customer base to use the airlock. “We’re delighted to have put together an All-American team for this project,” Jeff Manber, chief executive of Nanoracks, told Ars. “For us, it’s a meaningful expression of support.”

Open for business

The symbolism of a commercial doorway on the space station is important for NASA. The agency has made no secret of its desire for commercial companies to step up and use the space station as a test bed for everything from basic research to testing new modes of space exploration. NASA has said it intends to move on from low-Earth orbit into deep space within the next decade.

The new airlock will expand the capacity of private companies to experiment outside the station. At present, there is only one equipment airlock on board the station, inside Japan’s Kibo module. The Japanese airlock is fairly small, large enough to only accommodate items about the size of a miniature refrigerator. Although it opens 10 times a year, five of those openings are allocated to the Japanese space agency, JAXA, with the other five going to NASA and its commercial partners.

Nanoracks’ airlock would be about five times larger in terms of capacity. It will likely be located on a port in the space station’s Tranquility module. The airlock would connect the berthing mechanism and then be pressurized. After pressurization, the hatch could be opened and the airlock configured for various tasks.

For commercial opportunities, Nanoracks has a small satellite launcher, and it is also designing a “haybale” system to launch as many as 192 cubesats at a time. After the airlock is configured for a particular deploy, it would be depressurized and sealed. Then a station robotic arm could grab it, move it away from the vehicle, and deploy its payloads.

NASA support

Adding an airlock to the Tranquility module, which already has Bigelow’s expandable module attached to it, would give NASA a bonafide commercial presence on the station. While astronauts test the human-rated Bigelow habitation module, they’ll also be working with a commercial airlock that could one day be transferred to a private station. Meanwhile, private spacecraft developed by SpaceX, Orbital ATK, Boeing, and eventually Sierra Nevada will deliver supplies and crew. (The airlock would be carried to the station aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.

With this activity, NASA will have supported a nice mix of large, traditional aerospace companies as well as new space upstarts like SpaceX and Nanoracks. While it remains far from clear that private companies such as Axiom Space or others will succeed in developing private space station independent of NASA, the space agency deserves credit for fostering an environment where commercial companies can find out what succeeds—and what does not—in low Earth orbit.

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