[FPSPACE] Robert Bigelow's Space Plans

[Matula, Thomas L.]

Hi All,

Robert Bigelow was the featured guest on the Art Bell show last night. The link to the site is

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2007/03/17.html

Robert Bigelow spent the 4 hour show talking about his space plans. He also gave a preview of a major announcement he is planning for the Space Foundation Conference in April, which is he will be pursing “Sovereign Customers” into addition to Space Tourists. Sovereign Customers are nation state astronauts who will fly to his space stations under funding from their government.

Unfortunately you will have to subscribe to the show to download the audio files to listen to the Interview ($6.95/month). It was in the second hour of the show that he made the announcement which I think is a significant move that will help close his business case. Although private customers with the money to fly to space stations are few and far between, the number of nations that would like the opportunity for sending their nationals into space is likely to be fairly large for the usual geopolitical reasons, and they are much more able to pay for such services. 

Also, at the bottom of the page above are numerous photos of Robert Bigelow’s plant and spacecraft systems. The direct link to them are

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page1934.html?theme=light

Tom