As the Kremlin threatens to unleash atomic weapons in its conflict with Ukraine and develops nuclear-armed spacecraft, one aerospace company aims to offer a sign of peace. The American co-founders of Starlab Space have partnered with European, Canadian and Japanese space-tech leaders to create an orbital space station symbolizing international camaraderie. They believe their station could maintain celestial peace amidst Earth’s conflicts.
Voyager Space and Airbus, in a joint venture, designed Starlab after the International Space Station (ISS), which is set to succeed when the latter is decommissioned in 2031, and have already secured a pact with the European Space Agency (ESA) to host astronauts and spacecraft. The inclusion of Japanese and Canadian space companies is expected to bolster international participation further.
“One of the greatest successes of the ISS is its international cooperation,” said Jeffrey Manber, President of International and Space Stations at Voyager Space, in a recent interview with Forbes. “NASA wants to see this international alliance continued.”
Starlab’s leaders see the station as a continuation of the ISS’s legacy of international cooperation. Jeffrey Manber, co-founder of Starlab, stressed replicating the ISS partnership commercially without Russian involvement. General Thomas Ayres, co-founder of the US Space Force and Chief Legal Officer at Starlab, warned that space warfare or nuclear detonations in space could jeopardize low Earth orbit and called for a strong stance against such threats.
Starlab’s compact with ESA ensures access for ESA astronauts and long-term research, positioning Starlab as partly a European Space Station. This station, filled with the latest scientific experiment facilities and inspired by design from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ is to fly on SpaceX’s Starship. All this will be made possible by coming together to strengthen and continue the peaceful space mission of the ISS thereby leading the way for a new era of international space cooperation.
