This is a critical time for companies racing to develop a commercial successor to the International Space Station. NASA is working with several companies, including Axiom Space, Voyager Technologies, Blue Origin and Vast, to develop concepts for private stations where it can spend time with its astronauts.
The space agency awarded phase one contracts several years ago and is now in the final stages of writing requirements for phase two after seeking feedback from industry partners in September. This program is known in industry parlance as Commercial LEO Destinations, or CLDs.
Time is running out if NASA wants to establish continuity from the International Space Station, which will reach the end of its life in 2030, and a follow-on station is set to go before then.
One of the more interesting companies in the competition is Voyager Technologies, which recently announced a strategic investment from Janus Henderson, a global investment firm. In another sign that competition is heating up, Voyager hired John Baum away from Vaast, where he was the company’s business development leader.
To understand the competition and how Voyager is coming along with its Starlab space station project, Ars spoke to the firm’s president, Dylan Taylor. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
arse, I know there are a lot of companies working on CLDs that are actively raising money right now. How’s it going for Voyager and Starlab?
dylan taylor: Fundraising is going quite well. You saw the Janus announcement. This is important for a few reasons. For one thing, it’s a significant investment. Of course, we’re not disclosing the exact amount. (Editor’s note: It’s probably on the order of $100 million.) But the more positive development on Janus Investments is that they are a well-known, respected financial investor.
If you look at the type of bellwether investors, Janus would be right up there with Blackstone or BlackRock or Fidelity. So this is important not only in terms of capital contribution, but it shows that commercial space stations are investable. This is not money coming from Gulf countries. This isn’t a bunch of $1,000 checks from retail investors. This is a very significant institutional investor coming in, and that’s a signal to the market. They did significant due diligence on all of our competitors, and they went on to say that we’re far from the best business plan, the best design, and all that other stuff, which is why it’s so worthwhile.
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