There is a good article this week regarding Bigelow Aerospace in Aviation Week & Space Technology. The article leads with the possibility that Bigelow will cooperate with the Chinese on inflatable space stations, and then goes on to update the public details of Bigelow's program with announcements from the last couple of months.
Currently, I don't think that the Chinese can offer Bigelow much on the space station itself, but as discussed previously, Bigelow has to have a cost-effective heavy launch rocket for his Nautilus modules. The Chinese can either launch the module on their Long March rocket, or give additional price competition to others for the launch. In any event, there's no cost to keeping the possibility and the lines of communication open for launch services and other shared activities.
http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2004/MERC-Jul-08-Thu-2004/24250261.html
Another story about Bigelow from the Las Vegas Mercury.
Posted by: Gturyhdf | July 09, 2004 at 04:13 PM
Thanks for stopping by Gturyhdf. That's a good article for the atmospherics of what is going on.
Posted by: Dan Schmelzer | July 12, 2004 at 10:19 AM