WASHINGTON -- Bigelow Aerospace officials said
Feb. 1 they are making progress in their negotiations with Lockheed Martin
Commercial Launch Services for six initial launches for their planned
commercial space station, starting around 2011. Subsequently the company hopes
to conduct as many as a dozen Atlas 5 launches per year as the new facility
becomes fully operational.
Bigelow
Aerospace and United Launch Alliance (ULA) -- the Denver-based company that
builds the Atlas 5 Services -- have been working together for over a year
studying what it would take to human-rate the Atlas 5 rocket. Industry sources
said Bigelow Aerospace is ready to place an order that includes six launches
starting in 2011 to begin
assembly and early operation of the new station.
"Those
[first] six launches will be comprised of two missions to deploy hardware such
as Sundancer
itself and our node/bus combination and four missions dedicated to
transporting crew and cargo," Robert Bigelow, president and founder of Bigelow
Aerospace said in a written statement. "Subsequently our launch rate will
double, and we will require a dozen launches, all for crew and cargo
transportation missions over the next 12-month period. Our third year of active
operations will again require another dozen crew and cargo mission launches
and, in our fourth year of operations, we anticipate needing 18 such launches."
Bigelow
said the negotiations with Lockheed Martin apply only to the provision of a
man-rated launch vehicle and that the type and manufacturer of the crew
transport capsule Bigelow will need has yet to be decided.
"I don't
think anyone could deny the excellent record and pedigree of the Atlas 5-401 as
a quality choice to be upgraded to carry human passengers," Bigelow said.
ULA
spokeswoman Julie Andrews also confirmed Feb. 1 that negotiations were under
way.
"As a
merchant supplier of launch services, United Launch Alliance is very proud that
our Atlas 5 is being considered for such a commercial space venture," Andrews
told Space News. "We will work closely with Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch
Services in implementing the detailed design and development activities to
provide a human-rated Atlas 5 launch vehicle to be ready to support Bigelow's plan."
While ULA
would supply the rockets, the deal is being worked through Lockheed Martin
Commercial Launch Services, also of Denver.
In a
written statement, David Markham, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial
Launch Services, said: "The Atlas 5 is ideal to provide commercial crew and
cargo transportation for this pioneering commercial space venture.
Bigelow
Aerospace possesses an unparalleled
vision and entrepreneurial perspective that
is crucial to truly opening the commercial space market to a larger segment of
the population. Targeting the Atlas 5 for use demonstrates a commitment to
flight-proven domestic launch services to ensure success."
Andrews
said ULA is still evaluating what it would need to do on the production side to
support the 12 launches per year Bigelow says he wants.
"We will
study how to increase the production rate for the eventual rates that Bigelow
is talking about," she said.
On the
operations side of the equation, Andrews said the Atlas 5 launch complex at
Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida is
sized to handle the number of launches Bigelow is talking about.
"We will be
keeping all of our government customers informed as we go forward, but Launch
Complex 41 was designed to launch more than they currently are," Andrews said,
noting that Lockheed Martin conducted 11 Atlas 1 and 2 launches from Florida in
1995.
Bigelow
Aerospace currently has two subscale expandable space modules in orbit. The
privately-financed Genesis
1 and Genesis 2 modules were launched on July 12,
2006 and June 28, 2007, respectively, on Dnepr boosters from the ISC Kosmotras
Yasny Cosmodrome, located in the Orenburg region of Russia.
Last year
Bigelow cited the combination of rising Russian launch prices and the success
of Genesis 1 and 2 in announcing his plans to skip the launch of additional
subscale demonstrators and accelerate the deployment of an expandable space
station initially capable of accommodating six people and eventually as many as
15.
His
advertised price for a four-week stay: just under $15 million.
Bigelow did
not disclose what type of spacecraft the company intends to put atop the Atlas
5 to carry passengers.
Editor's Note: This story was updated on Feb. 6, 2007.
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