Starlab. The private space station will be launched on a SpaceX rocket

The Chinese International Space Station and Tiangong are currently orbiting around Earth. In a few years, another facility of this type will appear in space. This is it Starlab, a private space stationwhose partners include, among others: Airbus, Northrop Grumman, and Voyager Space.

Companies associated with the Starlab project said they would act as contractors SpaceX has been selected and its mission will be to launch the facility into Earth orbit. For this purpose, Elon Musk and his partners will use the Starship vehicle, which, together with the first stage called Super Heavy, is currently the largest rocket in the world with a height of 120 meters.

The exact date of the mission has not yet been announced, but we know that Starlab will be in Earth orbit later in the decade. This is expected to happen before the International Space Station deorbits, which NASA has planned for 2030.

So SpaceX faces a big challenge. The spacecraft is supposed to be able to carry payloads weighing up to 150 tons into space, but Elon Musk's huge rocket is still in the testing phase and is not ready for commercial missions.

SpaceX has so far conducted only two orbital flight tests of Starship, neither of which have been fully successful. A third mission is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks, and is believed to be more successful. Each such attempt provides a wealth of data that can then be used to make corrections. It should be noted that the SpaceX ship was also selected by NASA. As a lunar lander for the Artemis mission.

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