ULA and Bigelow announce partnership for first commercial space stations

[bananas]

Source: NASA SpaceFlight

United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Bigelow Aerospace have announced a partnership agreement to launch two of Bigelow’s inflatable B330 space habitats. The modules would be designed and built by Bigelow Aerospace and launched by ULA’s veteran Atlas V rocket and would provide commercial, “democratized” access to Low Earth Orbit research facilities.

The announcement at this year’s Space Symposium comes after years of development on the inflatable module concepts (Genesis I and II) and just three days after Bigelow’s BEAM module launched for a two-year experimental stay on the Space Station.

The agreement unveiled on Monday will see Bigelow deliver two fully functional B330 modules to ULA for notional launches in 2020, as noted by Mr. Bigelow.

Currently, the first of these two modules is slated to be ready for launch by late-2019, with the second module ready sometime in 2020.

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Read more: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/04/ula-bigelow-partnership-first-commercial-space-stations/

[bananas]

1. ULA to partner with Bigelow on commercial space habitats

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-ula-bigelow-idUSKCN0X82P1

ULA to partner with Bigelow on commercial space habitats

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. | By Irene Klotz
Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:28pm EDT

United Launch Alliance will team with billionaire entrepreneur Robert Bigelow to market and fly habitats for humans in space, a project that hinges on space taxis being developed by SpaceX, Boeing Co and other firms, ULA and Bigelow said on Monday.

The agreement, announced at a news conference at the U.S. Space Symposium in Colorado Spring, Colorado, includes a 2020 launch of a 12,000-cubic foot (330-cubic meter) inflatable habitat aboard a ULA Atlas 5 rocket, currently the only vehicle with a big enough payload container to hold the module.

Bigelow told the news conference that partnering with ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing, is “a potentially enormously important relationship,” to open space to non-government research, commercial endeavors and tourism.

ULA and Bigelow did not give details on their alliance. ULA President and Chief Executive Tory Bruno said at the news conference that ULA is contributing "resources of technology and talent. We don’t talk about dollars and investment. You'll see as time goes by what this fully encompasses."

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[bananas]

2. Video of the press conference

posted in the Video forum http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017354538

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Great!

[bananas]

4. Discussion at NSF

Bigelow Aerospace and ULA to Announce New Partnership - April 11, 2016
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39996.0

[haikugal]

5. Thanks!

[longship]

6. Here's the B330