Ohio State was part of the original proposal to NASA’s Commercial low-Earth Orbit Destinations program in which Nanoracks (a Voyager company) was awarded ~$165M to begin development of Starlab.
Key partners in the Starlab collaboration are Voyager Space Holdings, Airbus GmbH, Northrop Grumman, Hilton Hotels, and The Ohio State University.
The Ohio State University will serve as the lead partner for Starlab and the Carver Science Park, with five major roles in the partnership:
Why this partnership is so important
Ohio State’s leading university role in the Starlab partnership and host site of the Starlab U.S. Ground Location brings a new Commercial Space Anchor to the center of Ohio. This anchor in commercial space complements and fortifies the National Security Space anchor at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, home to AFRL, National Space Intelligence Center, and other space-research and development assets, as well as Ohio’s Civil Space Anchor at NASA Glenn Research Center and NASA Armstrong TestFacility.
No other state can claim to steward anchors across all three key dimensions of U.S. Spaceflight activities - National Security, Civil, and Commercial - giving Ohio a first-mover advantage in leveraging these to generate positive social, economic, educational, and quality-of-life outcomes for our citizens, and positioning us as a global leader in the future of spaceflight.
