The partnership between Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Sierra Space, known as Orbital Reef, is currently facing difficulties, as reported by AsumeTech. Initially announced as a joint project in 2021, updates on Orbital Reef have been scarce in the past year. Sources indicate that the partnership may come to an end, as both companies are prioritizing other ventures, such as Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander and Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Despite the fluid nature of the situation, it is increasingly probable that Blue Origin and Sierra Space will separate, leaving behind the joint development of Orbital Reef.

Shortly after revealing the Orbital Reef project, Blue Origin secured a $130 million contract from NASA for the design work of the private space station. This contract was part of NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program. Blue Origin acts as the prime contractor for this NASA award, with Sierra as a subcontractor.

Rebecca Wickes, a spokesperson for NASA, confirmed that Blue Origin has been paid $24 million for completing specific milestones, but there are no immediate plans to transfer the agreement.

Orbital Reef, initially presented as a mixed-use business park in space, was scheduled to launch its first major components in 2027. Blue Origin and Sierra aimed to begin service as the International Space Station reached retirement near the end of the decade.

Blue Origin has always been interested in creating habitable space stations, envisioning a future where millions of people live and work in space for the benefit of Earth. Sierra has also been developing a habitat concept called LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) for years.

Competing projects led by Axiom, Voyager Space, Northrop Grumman, and Vast are also in progress, focusing on the establishment of private space stations.

In addition to Blue Origin and Sierra, the Orbital Reef team includes Boeing, Redwire, Amazon, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University.

However, Orbital Reef is not the top priority for either company. Blue Origin’s interests shifted after securing a $3.4 billion NASA contract for a crew lunar lander, which competes for resources in the same business unit as the space station. Sierra also allocated its resources to the development of its reusable Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Signs of the unraveling of the Orbital Reef project include the lack of updates on the project’s website, the absence of job openings related to Orbital Reef on both companies’ careers websites, and Sierra Space focusing solely on its own habitat work in recent press releases.

Sierra has continued testing and developing its LIFE inflatable module, a crucial component of the Orbital Reef architecture. The company regularly posts updates on milestones achieved during habitat testing, including recent “burst” testing of a sub-scale prototype. Sierra plans to launch a “pathfinder” demonstration mission of its LIFE habitat in 2026.