Bigelow's bigger ambitions

Posted: Friday, August 11, 2006 10:51 PM by Alan Boyle

In a provocative announcement, Bigelow Aerospace says that the success of its Genesis 1 inflatable orbital module - coupled with anticipated changes in the American launch industry - has led it to make some "bold decisions" and accelerate the timetable for its future launches:

"Due to a number of factors related to the outstanding performance of Genesis I, the hoped-for adequate performance of Genesis II and various additional factors — including, but not limited to, domestic and international issues forecast over the next four to five years bearing upon America’s transportation and launch deficits — we have made several bold decisions. An important announcement early in 2007 subsequent to the launch of Genesis II shall expose some of our plans."

The announcement goes on to say that Genesis 2, a module that will be the same size as Genesis 1 but more technologically advanced, will provide the only opportunity for Bigelow's "Fly Your Stuff" program, which will put mementos into orbit for a price, then arrange for pictures of those floating mementos to be beamed back down to Earth.

Last month, the company's owner, billionaire Robert Bigelow, said his efforts to put a private-sector space station in orbit might be speeded up because Genesis 1 exceeded expectations so thoroughly.

Does this latest announcement signal a breakthrough for Bigelow's budding space program? A speculative leap of faith? A "limited offer" marketing technique? All of the above, or none of the above? Stay tuned - and in the meantime, check out NASA Watch's notice about Bigelow's space patent (which was picked up and expanded upon by New Scientist).

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Comments

I think the reason for the announcement of the end of the "Fly your own Stuff" program is obvious. This is Mr. B speak for "we have customers." They have found paying customer payloads for the rest of the test flights, or probably more accurately, timid customers have finally come forward. Hats off to Bigelow, nothing succeeds like success! The real question is why are these customers willing to fly with Bigelow and unable, or unwilling to fly with NASA? Maybe the decade long delays had something to do with it? Maybe private enterprise likes dealing with private enterprise?

Tony Rusi, Seattle, Washington (Sent Saturday, August 12, 2006 10:59 AM)

I, for one, certainly hope they're going to be able to do more, sooner than they hoped. I would love to see private space enterprise eat NASA's lunch - in this case, the government *needs* competition.
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I don't think the "Fly Your Stuff" program has thought things out thoroughly. If you read the Website, they're looking for objects "smaller than a golf ball." I've got an inquiry in to them now about flying CDs - wider than a golf ball, but you can fly a stack of 100 in the same volume as maybe 20-30 golf balls, make three times the revenue per cubic volume, and I'll bet they'd look better floating around the cabin. Hell, even *NASA* is smart enough to "get" the appeal of people's info on CDs in space, i.e. with Deep Impact. But if Bigelow's going to go with Big Corporate Customers and lose the grassroots appeal, I guess they'll fly what they choose to fly.

Loren Davidson, SF Bay Area, CA (Sent Sunday, August 13, 2006 11:09 AM)

Perhaps, but anyone who does even a sliver of due diligence (which can be as simple as following space-related sites like this one) knows that the "Fly Your Own Stuff" program is a giveaway (though a useful attention-getter on something they'd launch anyway), and so, doesn't have quite the same meaning as lined-up paying customers. In other words, you could be right, but it's not a secret.

And there are three likely reasons for dealing with Bigelow over NASA:

1. You may be right about private enterprise dealing with private enterprise, in that NASA likely has more regulatory and red tape hoops to jump through, to get the same thing done.

2. Bigelow may simply be cheaper. (This, after all, is what we hope for from the new commercial space people)

3. NASA simply may not *offer* what they want. (just try to buy a tourist seat on the shuttle, for example, and see how far you get) This may be the biggest reason not to deal with NASA or Big Aerospace.

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Sunday, August 13, 2006 12:53 PM)

I wonder what it would take to get these folks to agree to fly an amateur radio transponder on one of their future test flights? A quick check of the OSCAR AMSAT pages indicates that most of the amateur radio satellites are off line or running at less than optimum capacity (http://www.projectoscar.net/birds.php).

And I would STILL be interested in seeing one of the next few test launches be sent on a track that would eventually catch up with ISS, or a slight reconfiguration into a solar sail (who says this gear always has to be in a tubular form?)

Alan Sheets, Loveland, CO (Sent Wednesday, August 16, 2006 12:26 PM)

I wonder when and if NASA will ever use a Bigelow on the ISS without having one of the partner nations objecting.

a p garcia (Sent Thursday, August 17, 2006 12:18 AM)

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