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Questions about Bigelow Commercial Space Station

Short answers, pulled from the story.

What was the Bigelow Commercial Space Station and who developed it?

The Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station was a private orbital space station under conceptual development by Bigelow Aerospace, a company founded by Robert Bigelow in 1999. It was planned as a commercially leased facility using inflatable expandable modules in low Earth orbit.

How much did Bigelow Aerospace charge to lease space on its planned commercial space station?

Bigelow set the price for a two-month lease of one-third of a B330 module, roughly 110 cubic meters, at US$25 million. Human access to the station was priced at US$26.25 million for a seat on a SpaceX Dragon or US$36.75 million on a Boeing CST-100.

Which countries signed agreements to use the Bigelow commercial space station?

By October 2010, Bigelow had memoranda of understanding with six nations: the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Sweden. The United Arab Emirates signed on as a seventh country in February 2011.

What was the Bigelow BEAM module and how long did it stay on the ISS?

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was a pressurized expandable module purchased by NASA for attachment to the International Space Station. It arrived on the 10th of April 2016, was expanded and pressurized on the 28th of May 2016, and in October 2017 was cleared to remain on the ISS until 2020 with options for two further one-year extensions.

What was CSS Skywalker and what was its planned room rate?

CSS Skywalker, or Commercial Space Station Skywalker, was Bigelow Aerospace's 2005 concept for the world's first orbiting space hotel. The projected room rate was USD$1 million per night, with a hoped-for launch date for the first Nautilus module of 2010.

Why did the Bigelow commercial space station project fail to launch on schedule?

The primary obstacle was the lack of available crew transportation to orbit. After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, Bigelow was forced to compete with NASA for seats on the Russian Soyuz rocket. Delays in commercial crew vehicle development pushed timelines back repeatedly, and by October 2011 Bigelow had cut its workforce from 115 to 51 employees because of those delays. All flights were ultimately suspended when Bigelow laid off all employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.