NASA has chosen Outpost to create a revolutionary ferry to transport goods from the International Space Station back to Earth.
Outpost is the pioneer company to develop a platform to return satellites from the ISS to Earth. It will innovatively use paragliders to return science and satellites to Earth. It will help check the earth’s debris. The ferry is expected to be ready before the retirement of ISS in 2030.
The evolution of the cargo ferry is a collaboration of Outpost and NASA through the Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (SAA). This collaboration helps develop NASA’s Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) that will order injury-leading payload Earth return from orbit.
Outpost, Nanoracks, and Spaceflight are working together to launch the revolutionary Cargo Ferry project to make Earth-return of cargo faster and more cost-efficient.
This will help
transport valuable non-human samples and small payloads that can now be returned quickly at low prices. This will be beneficial for both the ISS National Lab and the lower-Earth orbit.
Outpost Founder Jason Dunn emphasizes: “The Ferry will drive down costs while boosting throughput capabilities; it could provide opportunities never before seen across multiple industries.”
The International Space Station has very limited storage space. So, hard choices will have to be made. To create more room on board, items must be down-massed or removed entirely.
To address this issue, Outpost will develop a future human-rated version of Cargo Ferry that could one day provide emergency evacuations from private stations in orbit.
The ferry will be more appropriate for CLDs, which are smaller than ISS and fixed heat shield systems. Given that the heat shield is deflated during the whole journey up to the very last entry, it will be more directly scalable to heavier cargo. Hence, it would require less space for storage at CLD and launch to LEO.
Outpost has created an innovative, reusable satellite – their first product – which enables users to launch payloads into orbit and iterate (replicate) quickly upon its return. This quick work will cut down costs and help create a more sustainable industry for both Earth and our celestial neighbors.
