Inflatable Bigelow Module To Fly to Space Station in 2015

摘要

NASA is stepping up its commitment to commercial space projects with a first-of-its-kind agreement to buy a Bigelow Aerospace expandable habitat and attach it to the international space station (ISS) for a two-year test flight. Privately owned Bigelow Aerospace, based in Las Vegas and operated by entrepreneur and hotelier Robert Bigelow, hopes to parlay the fixed-price, $17.8 million NASA contract into future work providing similar balloon-like structures for human missions to asteroids, the Moon and other destinations beyond low Earth orbit.