Designing the Future: How Teague Is Shaping the Next Generation of Space Stations

In the vast expanse of space, where there’s no up or down, designing a functional and livable environment presents unique challenges. Seattle-based design and innovation firm Teague is at the forefront of this cosmic frontier, helping shape the interiors of commercial space stations that will soon replace the aging International Space Station (ISS).

The Zero-Gravity Design Challenge

For Mike Mahoney, Teague’s senior director of space and defense programs, the zero-gravity environment is the most fascinating aspect of space station design. “You can’t put things on surfaces,” Mahoney explains. “You’re not going to have tables, necessarily, unless you can attach things to them, and they could be on any surface.” This lack of directionality opens up exciting new possibilities. “You could have, let’s say, two scientists working in different orientations in the same area,” he adds.

This fundamental shift in how we think about space utilization is driving innovative approaches to everything from furniture placement to equipment storage. The traditional concepts of floors, walls, and ceilings become fluid in microgravity, requiring designers to reimagine the very nature of interior spaces.

A Century of Innovation

Teague’s journey into space design represents a natural evolution for a company celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Founded in 1926, Teague has left its mark on some of the most iconic products in modern history, from the interiors of Boeing airplanes to the first Polaroid camera and Microsoft’s original Xbox gaming console.

The company’s relationship with space exploration dates back to the 1980s when it collaborated with Boeing and NASA on plans for Space Station Freedom, a project that, while never launched, eventually evolved into the International Space Station we know today. More recently, Teague partnered with NASA on a 3D-printed Mars habitat mockup called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA).

From Suborbital to Orbital: The Blue Origin Connection

Teague’s space design work gained significant momentum through its partnership with Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space venture. The collaboration began over a decade ago with the New Shepard suborbital rocket ship, which made its debut flight in 2015. “We partnered with their engineering team to design for the astronaut experience within the New Shepard space capsule,” Mahoney recalls. “It’s all the interior components that you see that come together, from the linings to the lighting. We created a user experience vision for the displays as well.”

This partnership expanded to include design elements for Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station and the Blue Moon lunar lander. The work encompassed everything from the overall aesthetic vision to practical considerations like optimizing toolboxes for lunar surface operations and navigating around lunar lander legs.

Starlab: A Three-Story Vision for Commercial Space

One of Teague’s most significant current projects is the Starlab space station, a joint venture between Voyager Technologies and Airbus. Recently, Starlab unveiled a three-story mockup of its space station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. This mockup is designed to be reconfigurable, allowing designers to tweak the station’s layout both before launch and potentially years after it’s operational.

Tim Kopra, a former NASA astronaut who now serves as chief human exploration officer at Voyager Technologies, describes Starlab as essentially a three-story condo in space. “The first floor is essentially like the basement of a large building that has the infrastructure,” he explains. “It has our life support systems, avionics and software, the toilets, the hygiene station — which encompasses both the toilet and a cleaning station — and the workout equipment.”

The second floor serves as the primary laboratory and workspace, featuring a glovebox, freezer, centrifuge, microscope, and extensive storage racks and lockers. “We are very focused on four different industries: semiconductors, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and materials science,” Kopra notes.

The third floor is designed as a living space where astronauts can relax and recharge. “Deck 3 has our crew quarters, our galley table, our windows, and a little bit more experiment capacity,” Kopra says. The galley table itself exemplifies the unique design considerations of zero-gravity environments — no chairs are needed, just places to hook feet, with thoughtful placement of handrails and other features.

Efficiency as a Design Priority

For Kopra, one of the primary design goals is maximizing efficiency in both the station’s volume and the astronauts’ time. “Time is extremely valuable on the ISS,” he points out. “They calculate that crew time is worth about $135,000 per hour.” While Starlab’s operations will be less expensive, the principle remains the same: every minute counts.

The station’s layout reflects this efficiency focus. “We have a really cool design where the middle has a hatchway that goes all the way through the three stories,” Kopra explains. “So, imagine if it were a fire station, you’d have a pole that went from floor to floor. We don’t need a fire pole. We can just translate through that area.”

The Human Factor in Commercial Space

As commercial space stations prepare to take over from government-operated facilities, the human-centered design approach becomes even more critical. “In the past, space stations have been primarily designed for professionally trained, military background astronauts,” Mahoney observes. “Now we’ll have different folks in there.”

This shift requires designers to consider how researchers, scientists, and even non-professional private astronauts will use these spaces. The challenge is to create environments that serve NASA’s needs while also accommodating a diverse range of new customers who will be using these facilities for various purposes.

The Road Ahead

The timeline for commercial space stations to fully replace the ISS remains uncertain. Last year, NASA reworked its process for awarding funding for commercial space station development, aiming to have orbital outposts operational by 2030, the current retirement date for the ISS. However, NASA has been slow to follow through on this revised plan, causing concern in Congress.

Some lawmakers are now calling on NASA to reconsider its plan to deorbit the ISS in the 2030-2031 timeframe. Despite this uncertainty, designers like Mahoney and Kopra are maintaining their focus and taking a long-term view. “We may not know right now how the space station is going to be used 20 years from now,” Mahoney acknowledges. “How do we start to future-proof and create a system within that’s modular and flexible, so that we can add technologies and add systems, or we can configure in different ways?”

This forward-thinking approach ensures that when commercial space stations finally take their place in orbit, they’ll be ready not just for today’s challenges, but for the unknown possibilities of tomorrow’s space exploration.

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