NASA awarded Denver-based Voyager Space, Lockheed Martin and Nanoracks a $160 million contract to design Starlab, a new commercial space station to replace the International Space Station, the companies announced Thursday.

Dylan Taylor, chief executive and chairman of Voyager Space, told The Denver Gazette on Wednesday that the contract means the aerospace company will need to hire more employees.

Voyager has about 500 workers nationwide, with about a third of them in Denver, Taylor said. The company buys and funds smaller aerospace companies like Houston-based Nanoracks.

Starlab will be part of NASA’s commercial low-Earth orbit program and “enable NASA’s initiative to stimulate the commercial space economy and provide science and crew capabilities prior to the retirement of the International Space Station,” according to a release.

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“It’s about a third the size of the International Space Station and can house six astronauts, and has a large area for scientific research,” Taylor said in an interview. “It will be a platform for research on human longevity in space and improve countries’ abilities to go to space for extended periods of time.”

The $160 million award to Nanoracks is via the Space Act Agreement. The station is expected to be operational by 2027.

“While today marks a major milestone for Nanoracks and our Starlab team, the impact goes far beyond this award,” Nanoracks CEO Amela Wilson said in a statement. “To receive this support from NASA validates over a decade of Nanoracks’ hard work forging commercial access to space, bringing over 1,300 commercial payloads from 30 nations to the ISS.”

Starlab will include a “large inflatable habitat” designed by Lockheed Martin, which has about 1,300 employees in Colorado – many of whom work at the company’s Waterton campus southwest of metro Denver.

It also will have a metallic docking node, power and propulsion capabilities, a large robotic arm and the George Washington Carver Science Park “laboratory system which will host a comprehensive research, science, and manufacturing capability.”

“Starlab is the confluence of Lockheed Martin’s rich space expertise and history, Nanoracks’ innovation, and Voyager’s financial savvy. This team is equipped to aid NASA on its mission to expand access to LEO and to enable a transformative commercial space economy,” Lisa Callahan, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Commercial Civil Space, said in a statement.

“Starlab’s impact on space commercialization cannot be understated,” Taylor said in a statement. “Today we are witnessing a major economic shift, where space businesses are tangible, well capitalized, and commercially sustainable. It takes a planet to explore the universe, and we invite the global community to be part of Starlab’s success.”

Taylor will be aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule that is headed to space next week, with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley (daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space) and three others.