Bigelow Aerospace has launched a new commercial space company to manage and operate its private space stations.
Named Bigelow Space Operations (BSO), the new company will primarily look after the sales, operations and customer service of Bigelow’s existing and new private space habitats.
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BSO is expected to help Bigelow to focus only on production.
BSO currently employs a small group of people, including a chief operating officer, as well as sales and contracts officers. It plans to hire three to four dozen new employees over the next few weeks.
Bigelow Aerospace CEO Robert Bigelow was quoted by cnbc.com as saying: “We will spend millions of dollars this year to drill down on a conclusion as to what the global space market is going to look like.
“When we look at what is the commercial picture, as far as humans’ use of space today, it’s a whole lot different than it was ten years ago.”
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By GlobalDataBigelow is currently developing B330-1 and B330-2 space habitats, which are scheduled to be launched in 2021.
Following their launch, the single-structured habitats will be able to accommodate humans in space on a permanent basis.
Bigelow intends to build a single station, which will be launched on a single rocket that will have more than 2.4 times the pressurised volume of the entire International Space Station (ISS).
A new station manufacturing facility is also expected to be built in Florida or Alabama in the US, or another suitable location.
Bigelow Aerospace has already launched its habitable BEAM test module, which is currently being docked at the ISS to test its durability.
BEAM arrived at the ISS in April 2016 for a two-year mission.
