Re: Bigelow Aerospace to offer $760 million for spaceship

kT wrote:

Jeff Findley wrote:

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12836-bigelow-aerospace-to-offer-760-million-for-spaceship.html

Here are the interesting bits:

The company plans to break ground in less than a year on a factory
to mass-produce its inflatable space stations, but they are worried
that without an affordable commercial crew launch vehicle, none of
its potential customers will be able to pay to get to these space
stations, Bigelow said.

"We could find ourselves with a nice new facility, a number of
modules on the floor ready to launch, and nowhere in sight is an
affordable or even existing transportation vehicle - a capsule and
a lifting vehicle that make economic sense," he said.

"It's becoming much more of a crisis to us, so we probably are
going to be announcing fairly soon that we're going to offer a
contract - to whomever - where we will state how much we're willing
to pay per seat or per launch," he said.

The contract or purchase agreement would be worth $760 million in
total for eight launches. To show that Bigelow Aerospace is serious,
it will deposit $100 million in an escrow bank account up front if
the plan goes forward.

The potential offer tops the $500 million NASA has budgeted for its
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme, which
is part of the agency's own effort to spur development of commercial
orbital crew launch capabilities.

NASA and Mr. Big sure do seem a little uptight about launch services.

Who do they think they're going to shake out of the woodwork in 30 days?

Aren't these guys thinking things through at all? They could put a
SpaceX Merlin powered upper stage on top of an Atlas V common core, and
call it a day. That's one alternative launch vehicle architecture.

I've got many more. Will somebody please have Mr. Big give me a call.

Looks like a bargain for only $750 Million for a Space Station, I imagine
the price will only go up after the first one. Kind of like the price on a
Soyuz is heading up, is $25 Million now, or is it $30 Million.

Maybe NASA will buy the first one for storage at the Space Station. Of
course, Mr. Bigelow will have to charge them another $750 Million for the
paperwork that NASA will want.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Nova and other heavy lift concepts - PDF files
    ... NASA Center for AeroSpace Information ... Historical origins of NASA Launch Operations Center to July 1, ... Accession ID: 65N16348 ... Post-saturn launch vehicle study /part ii/ condensed summary report ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • NASA Gives Go for June 13 Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour
    ... NASA GIVES 'GO' FOR JUNE 13 LAUNCH OF SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR ... contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission ... the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: Bigelow Aerospace to offer $760 million for spaceship
    ... that without an affordable commercial crew launch vehicle, ... orbital crew launch capabilities. ... That's one alternative launch vehicle architecture. ... Maybe NASA will buy the first one for storage at the Space Station. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Dear NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
    ... NASA would be the only users of Ares I/V. ... and these same launch vehicles have proposed growth paths. ... With respect to launch vehicle safety or what some people would call ... casualties per commercial launch and reentry mission. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... it would be better for NASA and DOD to allow private industry to ... launch purchases if the vehicle proves successful). ... I'm convinced the current government sponsored launch vehicle development ...
    (sci.space.policy)
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