One of the startups vying to replace the ISS has opened a new arm of business in Germany to help make sure commercial space stations maintain the ISS’ international legacy after its decommissioning.
Starlab Space—a US-led joint venture between Voyager Space, Airbus, Mitsubishi Corporation, and MDA Space—announced the new subsidiary in Bremen, Germany yesterday.
“ESA is just as worried about the ISS coming down as NASA,” Brad Henderson, Starlab’s chief commercial officer, told Payload. “We’re providing that ability for them to come into Starlab, as much or more—if they want—than ISS.”
Ich bin ein Bremener: Starlab’s EU-based subsidiary is a joint venture, with 51% owned by Airbus, and 49% owned by Starlab, according to Henderson.
The new business unit will be led by Manfred Jaumann, who serves as Airbus Defense and Space’s head of LEO and suborbital programs, as well as its head of ISS services, payloads, and missions.
The idea behind the German subsidiary, dubbed Starlab Space GmbH, is to provide boots on the ground and legal toeholds to open up business development and engineering opportunities to European companies, space agencies, and research institutions.
The playbook: Through its venture partners, Starlab has been able to form collaborative agreements with research institutions in the US and Japan:
- Mitsubishi took over partial oversight of the Shonan iPark innovation center in Fujisawa, Japan in 2023.
- Voyager Space helped establish the George Washington Carver Science Park at Ohio State University the same year.
In a similar vein, Starlab Space GmbH has partnered with Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich to fast-track Europe’s scientific input on the new space station.
“It’s much more than building the space station. This is building an economy. It’s keeping alliances strong between those space agencies by, with, and through a CLD provider,” Henderson said.
