The Horizon 2020 EU-funded MOSAR project (MOdular Spacecraft Assembly and Reconfiguration) aims to develop a ground demonstrator for on-orbit modular and reconfigurable satellites.

The project will investigate and demonstrate technologies that enable a fundamental paradigm shift in satellite design and deployment that could potentially impact all future space missions.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 821966.

Contact: [email protected]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is about to carry what will soon become the International Space Station’s first privately-built airlock.

---

The company has previously built standardized boxes for space-based experiments and tiny satellite deployers, The Verge reports.

The Bishop is shaped like a bell jar and attaches itself to the outside of the space station using a number of clamps and latches.

“Once it’s there, it’s just extra real estate until we want to use it,” Mike Lewis, Nanoracks’ chief innovation officer, told The Verge. “We can use it in a number of ways, the first of which is to bring things outside.”