Yes, sorry, I know that it's been non-existent (other than deleted whining about wireless problems and the overwhelmingness of it). But Bob Bigelow is the luncheon speaker, and he's going to make some kind of news announcement at 1:30, so I'll try to get the word out on that, at least.

Lockheed and Bigelow ink a deal for private access to LEO. Its at Nasaspaceflight.com

Way cool!

My initial reaction:

If Griffin had selected Atlas V for the CLV this deal never would have happened. Lockheed would have wanted to charge Uncle Sugar (the taxpayers) more than Bigelow would have been willing to pay.

If LM is gone this far, I would wager it means that Bigleow has some solid agreement to sell/lease one of their stations. I suspect this will be their early 2007 announcement pending the sucessful flight of Genesis II.

Atlas V?

Why not just use Zenit, and cut out the middleman?

Phil, can Zenit launch the Bigelow module or it needs some variant of the Heavy EELV?

This is a clever move on the part of Bigelow, since it gives him other options just in case the alt.space efforts don't pan out. All depends on whether (a) Lockmart can make the Atlas V work as a cheap access to space vehicle and (b) Do so in a way that can compete against upstarts like SpaceX.

Mark,
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree 100% with how you put it. It's too early to know if they can pull it off, but my gut feeling is that if they do, it will actually help SpaceX and RpK rather than hurt them.

Weird.

~Jon

Looking at their commercial capsule design, it looks like it has more in common with its unmanned aereoshells than Apollo or CEV.

"It's too early to know if they can pull it off, but my gut feeling is that if they do, it will actually help SpaceX and RpK rather than hurt them."

If nothing else Jon, the 'giggle factor' just took another hit to the nads today. Things at a minimum, just got more serious.

This looks more like a real profit making business plan than a bunch of pie-in-the-sky underwear gnome Polyannas. Hopefully, this will make rasing capital easier overall now that it is possible a major will put some skin in the game.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at some of the LM staff meetings lately, it sure smells like there is some kind of old guard/new guard struggle going on there and it appears the new guard might be winning.

Very good news, indeed. It will be interesting to see who winds up with the lion's share of the business.My bets are not on the dinosaurs.

Mr. Bigelow has impressed me as a supremely capable businessman. It's in his best interest to foster competition among his subcontractors.

As a very sharp analyst said to me a few minutes ago, "It's amazing what a little competition will do."

Soon, perhaps, ordinary millionaires will be able to afford a ticket.The American economy has recently created a lot of them.

Bigelow has already said they're going to space one way or another. With this announcement, they're now saying they're going to space one way and another. Splendid news!