The station was initially proposed in 2010 by Orbital Technologies, a Russian aerospace firm (not to be confused with Orbital Sciences Corporation), who is collaborating to develop the station with Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia).

"[1][needs update] At that time, several customers were "under contract from the commercial space industry and the scientific community interested in areas such as medical research, protein crystallization, and materials processing, as well as from the geographic imaging and remote-sensing industry.

"[1] As of April 2013, Orbital Technologies appointed Stiphan Beher as Chief Operating Officer, taking the firm in a global direction, joining CEO Sergey Kostenko, a former Cosmonaut; and Sergey Chernikov, former Deputy Head of Manned Space Missions for the Russian Space Agency.

As of 2010[update], the station was receiving support from the Russian Federal Space Agency, who was encouraging private participation.

The initial 2010 plan indicated that the station would be "serviced by Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and potentially other commercially available vehicles.