Airbus Defence and Space and Lufthansa Aviation Training have agreed to cooperate in the development of an effective training process for the crews of the future Starlab commercial space station.
US-based Voyager Space and Airbus signed an agreement in August 2023 to jointly pursue the development of the Starlab space station. The pair is currently targeting 2028 for the launch of the low Earth orbit destination, with commercial activities commencing in 2029. This timeline will allow for a small window of overlap with International Space Station operations before the orbiting laboratory is decommissioned in 2030.
In a 6 August announcement on Twitter, Airbus Defence and Space revealed the expanding team behind the development of Starlab. The list included Hilton Hotels for crew lodging design, Northrop Grumman for the development of an autonomous docking system for resupply spacecraft, and Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) for the training of future Starlab astronauts. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MDA Space, Palantir, and Ohio State University round out the partnership.
LAT is not new to astronaut training. The company has contributed to the training of European Space Agency astronauts since 2000, starting by leading a consortium that developed courseware for the agency’s payload crew training process.
“With Lufthansa Aviation Training, we have gained another experienced European partner who will support our pioneering Starlab project with its many years of expertise,” explained Manfred Jaumann, Airbus head of low Earth orbit and suborbital programmes. “At Airbus, and of course especially at our international joint venture Starlab, we see the joint development of customised training concepts for the future Starlab teams – on the ground and in space – as an important and integral building block for our mission.”
According to Lufthansa Aviation Training, the partnership with Airbus will see it develop a comprehensive training concept with the aim of establishing a sustainable European training infrastructure for astronauts and ground crews.
