While Bigelow is building Space Stations...

[pathfinder_01]

"The Soyuz spacecraft may not be visiting the Bigelow habitats. From the Space Review article, it seems that one Bigelow "requirement is the ability to carry six to eight people, and cargo, at a time; one seat would be taken up by a Bigelow pilot and other seats might be needed for company crews being rotated in and out of the complexes?"<br /><br />Juzz, sounds like he might need to rent the space shuttle!

 

[vonster]

Here's what I think:<br /><br />The true (unpublicized) goal of one or more of these private space startups will be to begin mining near earth asteroids asap sometime toward the middle / end of the next decade<br /><br />Most of the space tourism / LEO access / space hotel efforts are a means to this end. Worthy means but not nearly as profitable from a business standpoint<br /><br />Asteroid mining is where the true profits are - the technology will be within reach - and therefore this is the silent race that is actually going on<br /><br />.