What's Happening at Bigelow?

[Danderman]

There is no question that Bigelow Aerospace has demonstrated a capacity to build new buildings, subscale flight models and full scale mockups.

[docmordrid]

http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/index.php

Bigelow Aerospace Expediting BA 330 Development

Due to customer demand and progress in commercial crew transportation, Bigelow Aerospace has moved directly to BA 330 development. As the name indicates, the BA 330 will provide roughly 330 cubic meters of usable volume and can support a crew of up to six. The BA 330 can function as an independent space station, or several BA 330s can be combined to support an even larger orbital complex.  "It's extremely exciting to proceed with the actual construction of BA 330s," said Robert T. Bigelow, President and founder of Bigelow Aerospace,  "This robust habitat will serve as the backbone for a new, dynamic era of commercial human spaceflight. The BA 330 will support a wide variety of utilization and exploration missions both in Low Earth Orbit and beyond. "

[baldusi]

Could they berth a BA330 to the ISS?

[pathfinder_01]

I think they are pulling our legs here. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a good plan, but I always wondered why would they try to build a space station as big as the one they planned on the first attempt. I think that a six person station is just fine for now and if needed then they grow or build a new one.  Only problem is I doubt Falcon 9 can launch this thing and the 2014 date is likely money wasted(unless they use it to book a dragon flight or to lift the docking node).

[baldusi]

I think they are pulling our legs here. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a good plan, but I always wondered why would they try to build a space station as big as the one they planned on the first attempt. I think that a six person station is just fine for now and if needed then they grow or build a new one.  Only problem is I doubt Falcon 9 can launch this thing and the 2014 date is likely money wasted(unless they use it to book a dragon flight or to lift the docking node).

The video shows an Atlas 551. A Falcon Heavy should have more than enough capability, but currently lacks the necessary fairing. Bigelow has stated that expects to have at least two providers. Being able to launch on bot Atlas 551 and Falcon Heavy should be the first milestone. Now he "just" needs two crew suppliers. I'm assuming that the Soyuz could be one. Whoever wins the CCDev3 would probably be the second.

[docmordrid]

Doesn't Atlas 551 mean a 5 meter fairing?

Falcon Heavy's standard fairing is listed as 5.2 meters.

[Jason1701]

Falcon Heavy's fairing is not the issue - the default fairing is the same diameter as the Atlas's in the animation. Vandenberg, however, could be a problem; what's the lowest-inclination prograde orbit that can be reached safely from Vandenberg? If it's not low enough, Bigelow couldn't use FH until the Florida pad is modified to support it.

Sundancer has disappeared from their evolution profile.

[ChefPat]

Sundancer has disappeared from their evolution profile.

It sure has.
I guess that simplifies their assembly line. Now they're making only Propulsion/Docking Nodes & BA-330's.

[Comga]

There's a rather interesting entry on this website.

Date-???     
Sundancer     
Falcon IX         
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA
inflatable space station module

Not surprising he has admited that he plans to launch in 2014 and that he plans to use Space X for it.

What I would like to see is Space X putting him on the rouster.

It has been on their list for at least two years...

http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

Bigelow was on the July 2004 SpaceX manifest in July of 2004 for a launch on a Falcon V in the fourth quarter of 2005.  ;-)
It has remained on the list with changing rockets and launch dates ever since. 

[docmordrid]

Sundancer has disappeared from their evolution profile.

It sure has.
I guess that simplifies their assembly line. Now they're making only Propulsion/Docking Nodes & BA-330's.

OR it might mean there's now an open line for something bigger

[baldusi]

Doesn't Atlas 551 mean a 5 meter fairing?

Falcon Heavy's standard fairing is listed as 5.2 meters.

It's not the width the problem but the length. The total size of the BA330 is 13.7m, and the inner length of the FH fairing is 13.9, but it's tapered. So they would need to stretch it a bit. And SpaceX hasn't actually demonstrated the fairing (look at Orbital). So they would need to do some mods to the Fairing to actually launch. Probably as little as adding 1m. But still a modification on an undemonstrated part.

[ChefPat]

Sundancer has disappeared from their evolution profile.

It sure has.
I guess that simplifies their assembly line. Now they're making only Propulsion/Docking Nodes & BA-330's.

OR it might mean there's now an open line for something bigger

I don't think do Doc.
I suspect the Sundancer & BA-330 were slated to be built on the same assembly line with modifications for the shorter length of the Sundancer. Getting rid of Sundancer helps KISS.
As much as I'd like to see the BA-2100 in construction ASAP I don't see them doing it in Vegas. There's just no convenient way to get it to a launch site from there. It's just too big.

[Jason1701]

Sundancer has disappeared from their evolution profile.

It sure has.
I guess that simplifies their assembly line. Now they're making only Propulsion/Docking Nodes & BA-330's.

OR it might mean there's now an open line for something bigger

I don't think do Doc.
I suspect the Sundancer & BA-330 were slated to be built on the same assembly line with modifications for the shorter length of the Sundancer. Getting rid of Sundancer helps KISS.
As much as I'd like to see the BA-2100 in construction ASAP I don't see them doing it in Vegas. There's just no convenient way to get it to a launch site from there. It's just too big.

I agree, but Bigelow clearly stated the new factory had three separate assembly lines. I'm at a loss as to what the third one is.

[pathfinder_01]

I agree, but Bigelow clearly stated the new factory had three separate assembly lines. I'm at a loss as to what the third one is.

Probably just space to grow into atm.... It could also function if NASA ever buys his product as a hab module or something.

[ChefPat]

I agree, but Bigelow clearly stated the new factory had three separate assembly lines. I'm at a loss as to what the third one is.

At least twice in February Bigelow said there would be 3 spacecraft on 3 assembly lines. Then at the ISDC Dinner in May he made no mention of 3 lines or the Sundancer.
It looks like he just changes plans.
When you're the Boss, you can do that.

[docmordrid]

I see a few congigirations according to need at the time - presuming the lines are generic and can be used for any product -

2 habs and 1 propulsion bus/hub unit
2 prop/hubs, of whatever size (they've mentioned lg & sm) & 1 hab
3 habs
3 hubs
Etc.

As to the Bigelow business case -

I see a lot of the same OldSpace v. NewSpace difference in thinking we've seen in the SpaceX threads, and with the exception of schedule slips or the usual new-tech problems NewSpace has been doing pretty good in spite of numerous "they can't", "they won't", "there's no business case" negativistic posts.

Also, outside the box entrepreneurs don't always make sense to old-school linear business people. This doesn't make their way of doing things wrong, just different. He has a plan, and he's obviously making sense to others in the industry. He also has a (very likely) disruptive product that could be adapted to numerous missions.

Bottom line is that Mr. Bigelow built a $billion business, something I dare say no one else here has done, so give him the credit and respect that deserves. A man with money, a plan, and a laser beam focus on that plan is not to be casually dismissed.

[Danderman]

Bottom line is that Mr. Bigelow built a $billion business, something I dare say no one else here has done, so give him the credit and respect that deserves. A man with money, a plan, and a laser beam focus on that plan is not to be casually dismissed.

I am not dismissing Bigelow, I am simply saying that until a customer willing to pay commercial terms is on the books, its going to be building buildings, subscale models, and full scale mockups for the indefinite future.

[go4mars]

I am not dismissing Bigelow, I am simply saying that until a customer willing to pay commercial terms is on the books, its going to be building buildings, subscale models, and full scale mockups for the indefinite future.

Do you think Bigelow had his entire 1st year of customers lined up before he built and opened budget suites?  Not everyone needs 100% assurances.

[hop]

Do you think Bigelow had his entire 1st year of customers lined up before he built and opened budget suites?  Not everyone needs 100% assurances.

Do you think the market for hotel rooms was not well established when Bigelow got into the business ?

I agree with Danderman, I don't see Bigelow launching a crew capable station until he has some pretty solid customers. Space stations aren't just expensive to build and launch, they are expensive to operate too.

IMO, he won't get those solid customers until the transportation problem is solved. That in turn depends on some US crew capability, because even if Bigelow was willing to go against his preference and go with the Russians, they won't have capacity while they are the sole transport for ISS.

[SpacemanInSPACE]

I really think its important to get a bigelow module up onto the ISS for testing. Not only using the ISS for its intended utilization, the Bigelow module would provide demonstrations to foreign countries to prove that Bigelow's modules do work.

There are literally so many positive outlooks to this proposition, I hope it comes through.