A single Starship rocket will be used by SpaceX, Airbus, and startup Voyager Space to launch the commercial space station known as Starlab into orbit.

The corporations have not yet disclosed a predicted start date for this ambitious scheme. Though NASA intends to decommission the International Space Station in 2030, Starlab Space asserts that it is confident in launching its station before then.

The news follows the January 9 announcement of the joint Starlab venture by Voyager Space and Airbus. Now, the businesses are hoping to gain a significant advantage on their journey into orbit with the support of Elon Musk’s private space enterprise.

“SpaceX’s history of success and reliability led our team to select Starship to orbit Starlab,” said Voyager Space CEO Dylan Taylor in a press release. “SpaceX is the unmatched leader for high-cadence launches and we are proud Starlab will be launched to orbit in a single flight by Starship.”

According to the statement, Starlab is designed to continue where the International Space Station (ISS) left off by offering a “global customer base of space agencies, researchers, and companies” with a “continuous human presence in [low-Earth orbit].”

That being said, the entire project is dependent on SpaceX’s massive Starship launch pad. As SpaceNews notes, only Starship has the strength to lift the space station into orbit intact because of its massive size (about 26 feet broad).

That’s the written plan, anyway. The two orbital launch attempts by SpaceX thus far have resulted in enormous explosions, and the company has yet to demonstrate the feasibility of its gigantic launch platform. It is planned to conduct a third flying test later this year.

Additionally, Starship is expected to be a key component of NASA’s plans to send humans back to the Moon later this decade.
SpaceX is confident in launching Starlab in spite of the significant obstacles that lie ahead.

“Starlab’s single-launch solution continues to demonstrate not only what is possible, but how the future of commercial space is happening now,” said SpaceX commercial business senior VP Tom Ochinero in a statement. “The SpaceX team is excited for Starship to launch Starlab to support humanity’s continued presence in low-Earth orbit on our way to making life multiplanetary.”