Blue Origin's Orbital Reef space station to feature in Hollywood's next big flick HELIOS

Blue Origin’s underdevelopment space station Orbital Reef is set to feature in a Hollywood movie, the company announced at the 73rd International Astronautical Congress in Paris on September 20. Orbital Reef will be portrayed as a mixed-use space station for the movie HELIOS, under a cross-promotional deal with Centerboro Productions. The film's shooting is expected to begin in 2023. 

It is worth mentioning, however, that the first module of the commercial space station won’t launch until 2027, meaning the film will be shot in a mock environment simulating the space station. 

About the movie HELIOS

According to an official release, the movie is set in the year 2030 it tells the story of the spaceship HELIOS and its crew that rushes to the International Space Station (ISS) which gets hit by a massive solar storm. Written by Patricia A. Beninati, Michael K. Anderson, and Bernard Moore, the movie is about the characters Jess Denver, astronomer and former NASA astronaut, and Air Force Colonel Sam Adler who launch into space to save the day. Throughout the movie, Orbital Reef will be used as a critical resource by the HELIOS crew.

(Graphical representation of Orbital Reef; Image: OrbitalReef.com)

“We teamed up with Blue Origin to give moviegoers a thrilling, but realistic depiction of the future of living and working in space and a coordinated response to a space weather emergency”, said Producer Beninati. 

(Image: OrbitalReef.com)

The Orbital Reef space station’s development is being led by Blue Origin, Sierra Space and Boeing with technological assistance from Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering and Arizona State University. As mentioned above, the orbital observatory is expected to be operational by 2027. According to the developers of the space station, it would be leased for commercial activities such as film-making in microgravity apart from providing a platform for in-orbit research. Built to accommodate ten people at once, Orbital Reef will be installed in a mid-inclination, 500-kilometer orbit above the Earth. 

(Image: OrbitalReef.com)

Recently, Sierra Space announced that the station has successfully completed the System Definition Review (SDR) with NASA and is now entering the design stage. In recent times, several companies have proposed their idea of private space stations that will be launched to replace the aging ISS. Apart from Orbital Reef, another commercial outpost by Axiom Space is being built and the first module is targeted for launch in 2024. In addition to this, Voyager Space, Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin have also partnered for a separate space station.