Jim Bridenstine’s NASA Administrator portrait. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is joining the board of directors for Starlab Space, the joint venture between Voyager Space and Airbus. The company is designing and building the free flying, commercial space station Starlab. 

Bridenstine led NASA from April 2018 to January 2021. His tenure at the agency included introducing NASA’s human lunar exploration mission the Artemis program and the first crewed mission in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.  

Bridenstine has been serving as chairman of Voyager Space’s advisory board since April 2021. 

“His unparalleled expertise as a head of agency, decorated veteran, civil servant, and leader across the defense and space industries will be critical to Starlab’s success,” said Dylan Taylor, chairman and CEO of Voyager Space. “It’s an honor to have him guide our team as we usher in a new era of the commercial space economy.”

Starlab recently completed a systems requirements review, system definition review, and announced a teaming agreement with Northrop Grumman and collaboration with the European Space Agency.

Starlab is partially funded by NASA as part of contracts awarded in 2021 to develop commercial space stations in LEO to transition from the International Space Station (ISS). This month, NASA announced that the Starlab project is receiving an additional $57.5 million, bringing the total award to $217.5 million.