{"id":24567,"date":"2016-04-12T05:43:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T12:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/bigelow-aerospace-and-united-launch-alliance-join-forces-to-foster-a-new-era-of-sustainable-commercialization-in-low-earth-orbit"},"modified":"2016-04-12T05:43:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T12:43:13","slug":"bigelow-aerospace-and-united-launch-alliance-join-forces-to-foster-a-new-era-of-sustainable-commercialization-in-low-earth-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/bigelow-aerospace-and-united-launch-alliance-join-forces-to-foster-a-new-era-of-sustainable-commercialization-in-low-earth-orbit","title":{"rendered":"Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance Join Forces to Foster a New Era of Sustainable Commercialization in Low Earth Orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Colorado Springs, Colo., (April 11, 2016)<\/strong> \u2013 Bigelow Aerospace (BA) and United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced they are partnering to develop and deploy habitable volumes in Low Earth orbit (LEO). The volumes will be based on the Bigelow Aerospace B330 expandable module with the initial launch to orbit in 2020 on ULA\u2019s Atlas V 552 configuration launch vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>The B330 will have 330 cubic meters (12,000 cu ft) of internal space. The craft will support zero-gravity research including scientific missions and manufacturing processes. Beyond its industrial and scientific purposes, however, it has potential as a destination for space tourism and a craft for missions destined for the Moon and Mars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are exploring options for the location of the initial B330 including discussions with NASA on the possibility of attaching it to the International Space Station (ISS),\u201d said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace. \u201cIn that configuration, the B330 will enlarge the station\u2019s volume by 30% and function as a multipurpose testbed in support of NASA\u2019s exploration goals as well as provide significant commercial opportunities. The working name for this module is XBASE or Expandable Bigelow Advanced Station Enhancement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ulalaunch.com\/bigelow-aerospace-and-ula-join-forces.aspx\">http:\/\/www.ulalaunch.com\/bigelow-aerospace-and-ula-join-forces.aspx<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado Springs, Colo., (April 11, 2016) \u2013 Bigelow Aerospace (BA) and United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced they are partnering to develop and deploy habitable volumes in Low Earth orbit (LEO). The volumes will be based on the Bigelow Aerospace B330 expandable module with the initial launch to orbit in 2020 on ULA\u2019s Atlas V 552 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}