Bigelow Aerospace - Crew and Passenger Transport

Crew and Passenger Transport

Bigelow's business model requires a means of transporting humans to and from low Earth orbit. In 2004 Bigelow established and funded a US$50 million prize, America's Space Prize, to stimulate development of manned vehicles. The prize expired without a winner in early 2010.

In August 2009, Bigelow Aerospace announced the development of the Orion Lite spacecraft, intended to be a lower cost, and less capable version of the Orion spacecraft under development by NASA. The intention would be for Orion Lite to provide access to low earth orbit using either the Atlas 5 or Falcon 9 launch systems, and carrying a crew of up to 7.

At the time Bigelow Aerospace's corporate counsel Mike Gold said: "...we would be foolish to depend completely on one capsule provider or any single launch system", ... "Therefore, it is vital from both a practical and business perspective to ensure that SpaceX and Dragon aren't the only options available to us, hence the need for another capsule."

Bigelow entered NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program with the CST-100 capsule in collaboration with Boeing. Since then NASA has awarded Boeing $18 million for initial development of a crew capsule as part of CCDev. Bigelow is working with Boeing to refine requirements for the CST-100.

As of 2010, Bigelow is actively pursuing both the Boeing CST-100/ULA Atlas V and the SpaceX Dragon/Falcon 9 capsule/launcher combinations for launch options. "Bigelow offers Boeing, SpaceX, and other vehicle developers ... the promise of a sustained, large market for space transportation services." With the initial Space Complex Alpha space station, Bigelow "would need six flights a year; with the launch of a second, larger station, that number would grow to 24, or two a month."

As of August 2012, Boeing is expecting Bigelow to be a customer for flights on the CST-100, which received a contract from NASA for additional development and design refinement through the critical design review phase via the CCiCap program.

In May 2012, Bigelow and SpaceX teamed up to do joint marketing to international customers of crew transport on SpaceX Dragon/Falcon 9 up to the Bigelow BA 330 space facility.