The Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

orbital

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

under conceptual development by

Bigelow Aerospace Bigelow Aerospace is an American aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactures and develops expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998, and is based in North Las Vegas, Nevada. ...

in the 2000s and 2010s. Previous concepts of the space station had included multiple modules such as two

B330 The B330 (previously known as the Nautilus space complex module and BA 330) was an inflatable space habitat being privately developed by Bigelow Aerospace from 2010 until 2020. The design was evolved from NASA's TransHab habitat concept. B330 ...

expandable spacecraft modules as well as a central docking node,

propulsion Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...

solar arrays A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and c ...

, and attached crew capsules. However it was also suggested that each B330 can operate as an independent space station. Attaching a B330 to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

or flying a B330 alone have been suggested by Robert Bigelow. On 8 April 2016, NASA launched a Bigelow inflatable module and attached it to the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

, where it has been tested for over four years.

History

Early work at Bigelow Aerospace on expandable space habitats, with plans to eventually assemble them into on-orbit space stations, began in the early years after the company was formed in 1999. By 2004, plans made public included assembly of multiple modules "into a manned space facility in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

for both and funded research and for

space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

."Inflatable privately owned orbital facilities
''

The Space Review ''The Space Review'' is a free online publication, published weekly with in-depth articles, essays, commentary and reviews on space exploration and development. It was founded in February 2003 by Jeff Foust, the current editor, publisher and regu ...

'', 19 July 2004, accessed 16 July 2010. Two more formal concepts have since been made public. By 2005, Bigelow space station plans had been further conceptualized into ''Commercial Space Station Skywalker'', or CSS Skywalker. In mid-2010, Bigelow announced their ''Next-Generation Commercial Space Station''—later named "Space Complex Alpha". The initial dates for the Alpha complex were not achieved. In January 2013, the Alpha complex was specified to be an in-space assemblage of only two

modules, with the first module to be launched no earlier than 2016.

CSS Skywalker

The CSS Skywalker (Commercial Space Station Skywalker) was a 2005 concept for the first "space hotel" by Bigelow Aerospace.The Five-Billion-Star Hotel, 1 March 2005
/ref> The Skywalker was designed to be composed of multiple Nautilus (B330) habitat modules, which would be inflated and connected upon reaching orbit. An MDPM (Multi-Directional Propulsion Module) would allow the Skywalker to be moved into interplanetary or lunar trajectories.
". Encyclopedia Astronautica, accessed 16 July 2010. In short, CSS Skywalker was "an effort to build the planet's first orbiting space hotel, ith a projectedroom rate of USD$1 million per night", and a hoped-for launch date for the first Nautilus module of 2010.

Company challenges

Early assessments of the probability of success of the technology development and challenges of a commercial space station pointed to the importance of factors largely beyond Bigelow's control. For example, in 2005, John M. Logsdon, director of

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

's Space Policy Institute said "I have little doubt that the basic technology is likely to work ... The issue is whether there's a

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

system that can get people or things, or both, up there." In practice, orbital launch plans were significantly delayed. First, after the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster in 2003, Bigelow had to compete with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

for rides on the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

three-person rocket — "a distinctly untenable position." In mid-2009, Bigelow announced they were continuing to develop a variety of space habitat architectures.Space Hotel Visionary Proposes Modified "Orion Lite" Spaceship for NASA, 14 August 2009
/ref>

Space transport

In 2008, Bigelow initially began talks with

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

to potentially contract launch services on its

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture be ...

-401 vehicle for both crew and cargo launches.No major hurdles to upgrade Atlas V rockets for people
David Shiga,
NewScientist.com
', 7 February 2008, accessed 20 July 2010 By mid-2010, Bigelow was actively pursuing launch options for its space station modules and crew capsules from two launch systems: the

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

CST-100 The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially ULA

launcher and also the

SpaceX Dragon American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 before being retired ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

capsule/launcher combination. "Bigelow offers Boeing, SpaceX, and other vehicle developers ... the promise of a sustained, large market for space transportation services."Bigelow still thinks big
''

'', 1 November 2010, accessed 2 November 2010. With the initial Space Complex Alpha, Bigelow "would need six flights a year; with the launch of a second, larger station, that number would grow to 24, or two a month." After 2010, no further concrete plans have been announced for transport with Atlas V launch vehicles. In May 2012, almost simultaneously with the successful mission of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, launched by SpaceX's Falcon 9 vehicle, to the International Space Station, Bigelow and SpaceX jointly announced that they were teaming to offer private crewed missions to space, promoting the Bigelow space station and SpaceX transport systems. In 2014, plans called for transport of humans and resupply cargo to the station to be via a SpaceX

Dragon V2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has also launched private missions such as Insp ...

, with a round-trip seat priced at . Lease of the on-orbit stations was priced at to rent one-third of a B330 module for 60 days. The B330 modules and any of several tugs were planned for launch aboard a

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that is produced by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. The rocket consists of two strap-on boosters made from Falcon 9 first stages, a center core also made from a Falc ...

launch vehicle.

Space Complex Alpha

The Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station was announced in mid-2010. The initial configuration for the 2014/2015 space assembly was two Sundancer modules and one B330 module,Bigelow Marketing Inflatable Space Stations
''

Aviation Week ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', often abbreviated ''Aviation Week'' or ''AW&ST'', is the flagship magazine of the Aviation Week Network. The weekly magazine is available in print and online, reporting on the aerospace, defense and aviati ...

'', 6 May 2010, accessed 30 October 2010. named ''Space Complex Alpha'' after October 2010. Bigelow began to publicly refer to the initial configuration—two Sundancer modules and one B330 module— of the first Bigelow station as Space Complex Alpha in October 2010. If the entire station is leased out, it could mean up to 25 Launches per year for crew and cargo. In early 2013, Bigelow Aerospace started referring to Alpha as consisting of two B330 modules instead of two Sundancer and one B330. In October 2010, Bigelow announced that it has memorandum of understanding with six

sovereign nation A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...

s to utilize the on-orbit facilities of the commercial space station:

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

.Bigelow Aerospace Shows Off Bigger, Badder Space Real Estate
''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...

'', 28 October 2010, accessed 22 November 2015. A seventh country signed on in February 2011: the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

In August 2015, Michael Gold stated that the timetable for the first B330 deployment is uncertain at the moment, since it is tied to the development of private astronaut taxis that can get people to orbit. With this projected to be 2017 or later Bigelow expects to be "ready when they are". In April 2016, the two B330s attached together was also questioned by suggesting that the first B330 might ideally be attached to the

or that each B330 could operate on its own. The first liftoff was targeted for 2020. All flights are currently on hold due to the temporary lay off of all Bigelow employees due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Pandemic.

Orbital complex construction

In 2010, Bigelow Aerospace began building a large production facility in

North Las Vegas, Nevada North Las Vegas is a suburban city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, in the Las Vegas Valley. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 216,961, with an estimated population of 251,974 in 2019. The city was incorporated on May 1, 19 ...

to produce the space modules. The facility will include three

production line A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory where components are assembled to make a finished article or where materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward c ...

s for three distinct spacecraft, doubling the amount of floor space at Bigelow and transitioning the focus from

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

. Bigelow expects to hire approximately 1200 new employees to staff the plant, with production commencing in early 2012. Construction would require three medium lift launches and one heavy lift launch. In October 2011

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

reported that Bigelow had, "pared its 115-member workforce to 51 ..because of delays developing space taxis needed to fly people to the outposts." , on-orbit assembly of the ''Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station'' components was projected to begin in 2014. , construction of the orbital complex was projected to occur in seven principal steps, based on an operations concept that included the on-orbit addition of two Sundancer modules and one B330 module.Bigelow Aerospace — Next-Generation Commercial Space Stations: Orbital Complex Construction
, Bigelow Aerospace, accessed 15 July 2010. * Unit 1: Sundancer-one module, with a pressurized volume of 180 cubic meters (m³), (unoccupied) * Unit 2: Commercial crew capsule arrives with Bigelow Aerospace astronauts to set up Sundancer-one and carry additional supplies * Unit 3: Supplemental power bus and docking node * Unit 4: Sundancer-two * Unit 5: Second commercial crew capsule brings additional crew and supplies, and provides a redundant method for crew return to Earth. * Unit 6:

, larger-volume module (330 m³) * Unit 7: Third commercial crew capsule brings additional supplies and provides a double-redundant, robust solution for astronaut re-entry.

Commercial leasing

In January 2013, Bigelow announced that they would sell

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

to the dual-

-module Alpha complex for US$25 million per year. In 2014, Bigelow announced that prices for human access to the space station were expected to be US$26.25 million aboard a

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

, or US$36.75 million aboard a Boeing

CST-100 The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially The price for a two-month

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

of one-third of a module (approximately ) was provisionally set at US$25 million.

Technical

Docking system

Bigelow was planning to equip its expandable space modules with both a Soyuz-style docking system on one end and a NASA-standard Low Impact Docking System on the other. The available docking port options for the Next Generation Commercial Space Station have not yet been released.

Test program

The " human-in-the-loop testing of the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS)" for ''Sundancer'' began in October 2010.Volunteers Test Bigelow Life-Support Gear
''

'', 22 October 2010, accessed 23 October 2010. By January 2013, the

Bigelow Expandable Activity Module The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an experimental expandable space station module developed by Bigelow Aerospace, under contract to NASA, for testing as a temporary module on the International Space Station (ISS) from 2016 to a ...

(BEAM) pressurised module was under development by Bigelow Aerospace, being purchased by

for attachment to the

. The BEAM arrived at the ISS on April 10, 2016, was berthed to the station on April 16, and was expanded and pressurized on May 28, 2016. The initial plan was to test the expandable habitat technology for at least two years. During its flight mission, NASA has been testing and monitoring the module's structural integrity, leak rate, radiation dosage and temperature changes. The module has been performing well, and in October 2017, it was announced that the module would stay attached to the ISS until 2020, with options for two further one-year extensions. The module is being used to store up to 130 cargo transfer bags in an effort to free up additional space aboard the station.

Launch planning

Potential launch options are in the '' mid-heavy lift launch system'' class of launch vehicles, where Bigelow has now negotiated arrangements with two commercial launch providers. both

—using the

— and

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, a ...

—using the

CST-100 The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially In February 2011, Bigelow announced that it would begin launching its unmanned space station modules in 2014 from

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

using Atlas V launch vehicles. In addition to the Atlas launches for the expandable modules, Bigelow had reserved a single 2014 Launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but that launch had not taken place as of early 2019. , press reports indicate that Bigelow will launch at least some of their crews to the station on the human-rated Atlas V utilizing the

Boeing CST-100 The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially space capsule A space capsule is an often-crewed spacecraft that uses a blunt-body reentry capsule to reenter the Earth's atmosphere without wings. Capsules are distinguished from other satellites primarily by the ability to survive reentry and return a payl ...

. In April 2016, Bigelow signed an agreement with United Launch Alliance to launch the first B330 module in 2020 using an

rocket. In October 2017, Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced they are working together to launch a B330 expandable module on ULA's

Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...

launch vehicle. The launch would place a B330 module in Earth orbit, and after outfitting it would be boosted to low

lunar orbit In astronomy, lunar orbit (also known as a selenocentric orbit) is the orbit of an object around the Moon. As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of the Moon about the Earth, but to orbits by spacecraft around the Moon. The ...

by two further Vulcan ACES launches by the end of 2022 to serve as a lunar depot. As this announcement stated that only a

had the performance and fairing capacity needed to launch a B330, it appears that any Atlas V launches would be for crew rather than B330 modules. The timeline may be 'aspirational' as ULA have indicated that the Vulcan will transition to using the ACES upper stage around 2024.

Long-term proposals

In late 2010, Bigelow indicated that the company would like to construct ten or more space stations and that there is a substantial commercial market to support such growth.Space, Inc. moving closer to launch: Private companies put forth some lofty ideas for space travel . . . and they're closer to reality than you might think
, ''

Florida Today ''Florida Today'' is the major daily newspaper serving Brevard County, Florida. Al Neuharth of the Gannett corporation started the paper in 1966, and some of the things he did with this newspaper presaged what he would later do at USA Today. I ...

'', 14 November 2010, accessed 5 December 2010. ''"We hope to build a number of commercial space stations, not just one or two. We'd like to have 10 or 15 or 20. We think the markets are substantial, so that's exactly what we're trying to accomplish"''

Future space station concepts

In 2010, Bigelow said that second orbital station—Space Complex Bravo—was scheduled to begin launches in 2016Balloons in Space: A History
''

Space.com Space.com is an online publication focused on space exploration, astronomy, skywatching and entertainment, with editorial teams based in the United States and United Kingdom. The website offers live coverage of space missions, astronomical discov ...

'', 12 November 2010, accessed 14 November 2010. and go into commercial operation in 2017. This complex would consist of four B330 modules. Bigelow has publicly shown space station design configurations with up to nine B330 modules containing of habitable space. The conceptual configurations are listed below.Bigelow Event, Shawn Jipp Flickr pics
/ref> * Advanced Medical Facility () - Nine B330 modules, three propulsion buses with docking node, three crew capsules. * Biological Containment Station Low Earth Orbit ( habitable, remotely controlled) * Biological Research Station Low Earth Orbit () * Deep Space Complex () - Four B330 modules, nine propulsion buses with docking node and three docking ports. * Lunar Depot Ares () - Three B330 modules, four propulsion buses with docking nodes. The entire station would land directly onto the moon. It is intended to hold 12 astronauts but is capable of holding 18. Near the lunar base there would be a solar array field. A model of this concept has been built. * Mars Exploration () - Four B330 modules, three propulsion buses with docking node. * Resupply Depot Hercules () - Announced Oct 2010 Six B330 modules, three BA 2100 modules, nine propulsion buses with docking node and three crew capsules.
/ref>

References

External links

Boeing promotional video of CST-100 capsule docking with the Bigelow Commercial Space Station

UK Astronomy Technology Centre
space telescope MOU with Bigelow {{Crewed spacecraft Bigelow Aerospace Proposed space stations 2020s in spaceflight