U.S. Hotel Tycoon Reaches for the Stars

[FeebMaster]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=585&e=1&u=/nm/20040808/sc_nm/bizleisure_space_dc_1

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Through his latest business venture, Bigelow Aerospace, the hotel mogul, who caught the space bug as a boy in the 1950s, has been quietly building the world's first commercial space station.

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Even so, after five years of effort behind closed doors, Bigelow Aerospace is nearly ready to begin flight-testing its hardware, and has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for approval to launch its Genesis module into orbit on a commercial rocket in November 2005.

Genesis is a one-third scale test version of the company's habitable Nautilus module, the first of which could be launched as early as 2008, depending on the results of subsequent orbital tests, scheduled for 2006 and 2007.

Watermelon-shaped, with 330 cubic meters of interior volume, the Nautilus would approach the International Space Station's current 425 cubic meters, and could be attached to others of its kind to create much larger orbital habitats.

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[liberalmuse]

1. That's my old boss!

I worked for his non-profit org. The aerospace thing is his baby and it looks like he's ahead of schedule. It's pretty cool to see a link to him here at DU.