Bigelow to Rehire Workers in Wake of NASA’s Commercial Crew Awards

Posted
by
Doug Messier
on September 2, 2012, at 4:09 pm
in News
. Tags: , , , , , , , , , .
Comments: 5 responses
5 Comments

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver is given a tour of the Bigelow Aerospace facilities by the company’s President Robert Bigelow on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, in Las Vegas. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA’s decision last month to award commercial crew contracts worth a combined $900 million to Boeing and SpaceX has provided a boost for Bigelow Aerospace’s efforts to launch private space stations into orbit.

Bigelow, which has partnered with both companies to provide transportation services to its orbital facilities, plans to hire re-hire workers who had been earlier laid off due to delays in NASA’s commercial crew program.

Robert Bigelow, owner and president of Bigelow Aerospace, called the funding “more aggressive” than prior NASA contracts and said he was “very happy” about the ramped-up investment, which will nearly double the workforce at his North Las Vegas plant….

Bigelow Aerospace won’t directly see any of the NASA funds, except “a very small fraction” as a Boeing testing and fabrication contractor. But the money will allow Boeing and SpaceX to perfect a way to get to Bigelow’s space habitat, where governments and corporations could conduct space research and training if they fail to land a coveted seat on the six-person International Space Station.

Bigelow said NASA is to distribute additional funds from 2013 to 2015. Combine the possibility of sustained federal contracts for Bigelow Aerospace’s partners with an increasing interest in space exploration among other nations and businesses, and Bigelow sees the need for new investments. The company just opened a 185,000-square-foot addition, bringing its North Las Vegas plant up to about 350,000 square feet. It slashed its work force from 150 before the recession to 50 during the downturn; now, it’s looking to jump back up to 90 workers by Christmas. It’s hiring structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as chemists, molecular biologists and workers who craft composite spacecraft parts.

Bigelow said he has marked 2016 as a year when spacecraft availability will meet growing customer demand, and things really take off for the business.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has the full story.

Be Sociable, Share!

Permalink

Post Comment

  • Paul451

    So funding certainty leads to job creation in innovative secondary markets. Funding chaos leads to job losses in innovative secondary markets. Quelle surprise. Perhaps someone could explain this to Congress the next time they try to zero funding.

  • A Theisen

    Paul451: Remember that Congress is composed mostly of Lawyers. For them reality means nothing. Have you heard of any lawyers being laid off. More specifically we should lay off a bunch of members of Congress!

  • A Theisen

    Re comment above:
    More specifically still a small cadre of Senators that have not passed a budget in over three years!

  • warshawski

    @Paul451 hopfully this is the first of many spin off developments now that there is some momentum in comercial crew capability. Once the initial capability is available the secondary applications will boom.
    Just imagine what could happen if SLS/Orion were canned and the money spent on a moon transport system, moon lander/launcher and deep space habitat. These could then be addapted to Mars transport and mars orbit habitat.

  • Steve

    I agree with you warshawski. NASA is being extremely productive with targeted seed capital that is distributed only when predefined milestones are reached. And the next logical stepping stone beyond LEO is the moon since the moon is always there and timing doesn’t need to match a passing space rock. Just image a COTS, CCiCAP type program for moon exploration perhaps getting Armadillo, Masten, Bigelow, etc. etc. into the fold. This is the “sustainable” approach where once the barrier to entry is overcome many profitable businesses may result. SLS/Orion is just another Apollo that will not be “sustainable” given the ongoing huge government outlay required therefore will just be another one off venture.