DUBAI- The UAE knows how to create attractive tourism destinations which align with Blue Origin’s vision for its newest Orbital Reef project, a company’s executive said.

Brent Sherwood, Senior Vice-President, Advanced Development Programmes at Blue Origin, told the Emirates News Agency (WAM), that his company wants to position Orbital Reef as a destination on its own in the space.

"It is about creating an attractive destination which is something the UAE knows how to do. I would be thrilled if we can bring that together for what we want to do for tourism in space. So, I think there is an alignment there between the vision of the UAE and our vision for Orbital Reef," he said.

Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, has revealed its Orbital Reef private space station project during its participation at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2021), the world’s largest and most prestigious global space event, taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The project is expected to deploy between 2025-2030. It is envisioned to provide a place for researchers, industry players, commercial customers and international partners to visit and work.

With an internal volume nearly as large as the International Space Station, Orbital Reef will be able to house about ten people when it launches, with plans to expand the capacity beyond that number in the future.

"Blue Origin’s philosophy and reason for existence is to reduce the cost of access to space and open the resources of space for humankind. In the long term, it’s the only way to enable unlimited growth of civilisation because the biosphere that we inhabit here has a limited carrying capacity. It’s not about moving humanity somewhere else. It is about preserving what we have here, yet still allowing humanity to expand in the future," Sherwood said when talking about the philosophy behind having Orbital Reef.

The company’s primary partner for the station is Sierra Space. The technical support is provided by Boeing, Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions and Arizona State University.

 

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2021.