The critical life support system of Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station reached certain milestones, completing four tests designed to assess the capability of the system’s several components in cleaning, storing and reclaiming the air and water needed to support human spaceflight.
Orbital Reef’s life support system completed a water tank test, water contaminant oxidant test, a trace contaminant control test and urine water recovery test, NASA said Wednesday.
NASA is funding the design and development of the commercial space station, which is being developed by Blue Origin under a Space Act Agreement with the space agency.
“These milestones are critical to ensuring that a commercial destination can support human life so NASA astronauts can continue to have access to low Earth orbit to conduct important scientific research in the unique microgravity environment,” said Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program.
“Additionally, each milestone that is completed allows NASA to gain insight into our partner’s progress on station design and development,” Hart added.
