>
Why Has The Vatican Chosen This Precise Moment To Drop Bombshells About UFOs, Aliens...
Dave Smith: Russia, Israel, Trump & The Swamp, Obama, and the Media Attacks on Joe Rogan
Bill Gates is looking for breastfeeding mums in Africa to poison
An American Nobody Stares Into Mordor
A Staggering 19x Energy Jump in Capacitors May Be the Beginning of the End for Batteries
Telegram Disabled My Account. Good Riddance
China's floating nuke plants up South China Sea ante
'Tungsten wall' leads to nuclear fusion breakthrough
Matt Taibbi Uncensored: Finance A 'Street Scam'
This Bonkers 656-Foot 'AirYacht' Concept Can Transport 40 Guests Around the World
DR. BRYAN ARDIS | How Much Nicotine Should You Use? How It Can Heal Parkinson's and More...
Elon Musk's Neuralink begins clinical trials in Phoenix
Scientists Are Making Jet Fuel from Landfill Gas Aiming to Launch Circular Economy
A company that builds big, inflatable space habitats has launched a new venture that will market and operate these structures in Earth orbit and beyond.
Today (Feb. 20), entrepreneur Robert Bigelow announced the creation of Bigelow Space Operations (BSO), which will manage the private space stations being built by his Nevada-based manufacturing company, Bigelow Aerospace.
BSO will also conduct in-depth market research, to gauge the demand for these space stations and identify the most promising customer bases. [Bigelow Aerospace's Inflatable Space Station Idea (Photos)]
"We intend to spend millions of dollars this year in drilling down, hopefully, to a conclusion one way or the other as to what the global market is going to look like," Bigelow said in a teleconference with reporters today. "We expect to finish that investigation by the end of this year."
BSO was officially established last year, but it started hiring only last month, Bigelow said. The company has already filled a number of key posts, including chief operating officer and general counsel, and intends to hire three dozen to four dozen people this year. Eventually, 400 to 500 people will probably work for BSO, the entrepreneur said.
Bigelow's space-station plans are based on soft-bodied modules that launch in a compressed configuration but expand greatly once they reach space. Such inflatables offer much more habitable volume per unit launch mass, and better radiation shielding, compared with traditional aluminum modules, company representatives have stressed.