Bigelow Aerospace and NASA sign contract

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Bigelow Aerospace and NASA sign contract

January 7 2013 10:50:20 PM | by Clark Lindsey, Managing Editor

There have been rumors about this for awhile. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace have signed a $17.8 million contract. The details will be released later but apparently it deals with preliminary work on the proposed BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) system for the ISS: New NASA, Bigelow Deal Puts Inflatable Space Station Module One Step Closer to Orbit - SpaceNews.com.

Update: The SN article is being kept behind their paywall so here are some additional details:

The project has been under study for several years, e.g. here is an article from early 2011 : NASA Eyes Private Bigelow Module for International Space Station - Space.com - Jan.26.11

"In general we're talking about a project that would take about 24 months from go-ahead to the module being on-orbit. It would be pretty fast-paced," Crusan told SPACE.com. To launch BEAM up to the ISS, he said, NASA would use a private rocket company under a Commercial Resupply Services contract.
NASA has done evaluations of where BEAM would be robotically berthed on ISS – likely onto one of the station's Node 3 interfaces, Crusan said."
This new funded contract follows an unfunded agreement signed in 2011 under which Bigelow has worked on various "procedures and protocols for adding BEAM to the space station".
As indicated above, the module would be delivered to the station by either a SpaceX Falcon 9 or Orbital Antares rocket.
BEAM would provide extra storage while also providing data and experience for both Bigelow and NASA on installing and using a module with a non-metal structure in a working space station environment.

This presentation gives an early general description and some visuals of how the module project might proceed: FTD #3: Inflatable Module Mission, by Tony Sang & Gary Spexarth - NASA Exploration Enterprise Workshop - May.26.2010 (pdf) (via Parabolic Arc) -

Comments (10)

Arnie Theisen

For those new to the subject, and before someone else says it in a negative way; NASA originally developed the inflatable module; up to a point. They never launched one. Bigelow bought the rights to further and improve that development and has put two modules into orbit. I won't name the one person who might say that Bigelow is simply selling something back to NASA and the tax payers who owned in the first place. For those who think the ISS is a waste of money, I say it should be expanded & Read More

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8th January 2013 11:13am

Coastal Ron

Certainly it makes sense to use the ISS for technologies we want to use in LEO and beyond, and as I recall this was one of the original justifications for it.

If we want to learn how to live and work in space, then we need to do that in space, and the ISS is the best place for it right now. Let's make the most of our $100B investment!

Flag

8th January 2013 12:04pm

geoffc

Since when did Node 4 become an option?

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8th January 2013 10:32am

Craig

It's not. These slides are extremely outdated.

Flag

8th January 2013 10:52am

dorkmo

power point time machine! thanks nasa! :P

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10th January 2013 1:10pm

StephenB

I think this underscores the importance of NASA bootstrapping new space companies.

Flag

8th January 2013 9:25am

Robert Zimmerman

This contract signing is a significant event, with important ramifications.

Among them but most important, it continues and emphasizes the steady and increasing transfer in the aerospace industry of ownership and power from the federal government to the private sector. NASA here is merely the customer. It will build and design nothing, only buy the module and launch services with cash.

Flag

8th January 2013 8:23am

Coastal Ron

And this is a new trend for NASA, but one that is still below the radar for Congress, who still uses NASA as a way to fund "programs" that have money flowing thru certain states and NASA centers.

Flag

8th January 2013 9:53am

Clark S. Lindsey

Without NASA managers explicitly choosing to do so, the falling budget may be forcing NASA to evolve into a NACA/NSF type of organization.

That is, NASA will be like NACA in that it will develop leading edge technologies, such as the TransHab inflatable habitat, that it turns over to private industry, which will then take the technology to the implementation level.

And it will be like NSF in funding science projects like Curiosity and MESSENGER.

Flag

8th January 2013 6:02pm

yg1968

I think that's already how the President sees NASA's evolving. Unfortunately, I am not sure that's how Congress and many at NASA see it.

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8th January 2013 9:52pm

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