[6] It is used to deploy CubeSats, small satellites, and other external payloads for NASA, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and other commercial and governmental customers.

Limitations on NASA's use of the JAXA facility created a bottleneck, prompting Nanoracks to develop their own airlock to increase satellite deployment capabilities.

[8] A Space Act Agreement between NASA and Nanoracks to develop a private airlock was signed in May 2016,[6] and the Nanoracks–Boeing plan to build and launch the module by 2019 was approved in February 2017.

[3] The Bishop Airlock was primarily manufactured by Nanoracks, with parts of the titanium and aluminium pressure shell made by Thales Alenia Space at their factory in Turin, Italy.

[13][2] The partly made components were shipped to Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility for completion, assembly and testing.