Washington, United States

Billionaire Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin has unveiled a plan for launching a commercial space station in the second half of the decade.

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Known as "Orbital Reef" the venture will be nearly as big as the International Space Station (ISS) and will house up to 10 people.

The aim of the "mixed-use business park" is to provide the infrastructure needed to scale economic activity and open new markets in space.

It will fly at an altitude of 500 kilometres (310 miles) with inhabitants experiencing 32 sunrises and sunsets a day.

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According to Blue Origin executive Brent Sherwood, "For over sixty years, NASA and other space agencies have developed orbital space flight and space habitation, setting us up for commercial business to take off in this decade." 

"We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalise space flight."

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Also see | Want to become a space tourist? Here is all you need to do

Blue Origin will work in collaboration with Boeing, Sierra Space, the spaceflight wing of defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp, and will be backed by Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University.

Blue Origin holds a contract with a company called Axiom to develop a space station that will initially dock with the ISS and later become free-flying.

Also see | Who is winning space tourism race between Bezos, Branson and Musk?

Space services company Nanoracks, along with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin, had also announced a planned space station last week. Known as Starlab, it will be operational by 2027.

Bezos had completed a successful space tourism flight along with pioneering female aviator Wally Funk and two others on board in July.

The race to commercialise space is heating up with big companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic giving tough competition to Blue Origin.

Bezos aims to space colonies with artificial gravity where millions of people will work and live, freeing Earth from pollution.