Bigelow Aerospace has chosen Orion Propulsion, Inc. to provide the forward attitude control system for its Sundancer space habitat. Orion Propulsion will provide four ACS bi-propellant modules, which will be used for attitude control and desaturating momentum wheels.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to support Bigelow Aerospace’s Sundancer program, which is placing the first commercial human-rated space habitat in Earth orbit,” said Orion CEO Tim Pickens. “This kind of trailblazing opportunity is in line with Orion’s commitment to commercial space efforts. Affordable thrusters and systems are centerpieces of Orion Propulsion’s product line.”
Orion Propulsion is located outside of Huntsville, Alabama. Bigelow Aerospace is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Decatur Daily has a story about how United Launch Alliance suffered a setback for its Atlas V vehicle, which was not chosen for the COTS program.
Earlier this week, NASA officials awarded a $170 million contract to Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation to develop a new launch system capable of delivering cargo to the International Space Station. The space agency had earlier awarded a similar contract to California-based SpaceX for a similar project involving both cargo and crew vehicles.
The Atlas V vehicle is being considered as the prime rocket for Bigelow Aerospace’s planned Sundancer space station. The companies are reportedly in negotiations for up to 50 Atlas V cargo and crew launches.
Pundit Rand Simberg has weighed in on the proposed deal for up to 50 Lockheed Martin Atlas V launches to support Bigelow Aerospace’s planned Sundancer space station. Simberg discusses the rocket’s reliability as well as NASA’s decision not to use the Atlas as the basis for a shuttle successor.
Although Bigelow Aerospace is reportedly close to securing up to 50 Atlas V launches from Lockheed Martin, the company is open to other transportation providers.
Bigelow Director of Publicity Chris Reed says the company has a reservation on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which is currently under development, and is encouraging the development of other launchers to deliver cargo and crew to the planned Sundancer space station.
You can read more about this at Hobby Space.
Space expert Jon Goff has some thoughts about that potential blockbuster deal for Lockheed Martin to provide up to 50 Atlas V’s to support cargo and crew transport to Bigelow Aerospace’s planned space station.
“If he were just running an orbital hotel (he isn’t), I’d be very skeptical. Instead I’m somewhere between skeptical and guardedly optimistic. While there haven’t been large numbers of takers for flights on the Soyuz, what Bigelow’s offering is fundamentally different. Flight opportunities are frequent (which is critical for most microgravity research programs–imagine trying to run an R&D lab that you could only visit once or twice a year!), the situation is more customer friendly, training would likely be more streamlined (I hear that for Soyuz training the “passenger” is actually more of a third crew member than an honest-to-goodness passenger), etc.”
You can read more of his post at Jon’s excellent Selenian Boondocks blog.
Flight Global reports that Bigelow Aerospace and Lockheed Martin are in final negotiations for Lockheed to provide a human-rated capsule and up to 50 Atlas V cargo and crew launches to an orbital space station by 2015.
Bigelow’s Sundancer space station will be composed of three inflatable modules and a propulsion unit. The modules are due to be launched into orbit in 2010 and 2011 aboard Atlas vehicles.
Read the full story here.
