The Bigelow test article has reportedly inflated and deployed its solar panels.

[Update before bed]

Here’s the story.

And Clark Lindsey has a brief roundup of the state of the alt-space industry.

Leonard David says that the Bigelow mission is in orbit. I haven’t been paying enough attention to this to have any profound thoughts [When did that ever stop you before? — ed Quiet, you], but it’s clearly good news, and big news.

[Update in the afternoon]

I’m in the middle of meetings, but Clark Lindsey is continuing to follow this and provide links here and here.

Not that this suprises me (well, actually it does a little–even I didn’t think that it would be this high), but if this is true, it’s hard to imagine that there will be much enthusiasm for lunar missions. There certainly won’t be from me, considering the alternate uses for the money:

…individual lunar missions using a CEV, CLV. CaLV, LSAM, LSAS, etc. are now estimated to cost $5 Billion each. By comparison, Space Shuttle missions cost $0.5 billion.

As always, that Shuttle figure has to be heavily caveated. Shuttle missions at current budgets would only be half a billion if we were launching eight to ten flights a year. The last Shuttle flight cost about five billion.

Like real estate, there are three rules of per-flight costs: flight rate, flight rate, flight rate.

And ESAS doesn’t allow a high flight rate…

[Wednesday morning update]

As is almost always the case, I am frustrated by the ambiguous terminology in discussing costs. What does “individual lunar mission” mean? I took it to mean average cost based on annual operating expenses. That would imply ten billion a year for two flights a year. Is that right? If it were four flights a year, then this interpretation would imply a twenty billion annual budget. Some could interpret it to mean marginal cost, but that would be even more insane.

If the number is correct, I suspect that it was derived by taking the total life cycle costs of the program, including development, and dividing by the total number of planned missions. If that’s the case, it looks like a reasonable number. A lot more than I’m willing to pay for it as a taxpayer, but it makes sense, given typical NASA program costs.

There may be one tomorrow, with a successful launch. We need to be developing cost-effective hardware for orbital facilities, and this could go a long way toward that end.

As Jim Oberg points out in Alan’s article (and a concern I’ve long had), Bigelow has always been too passive with respect to helping get launch costs down (though the recent Bigelow Prize will be helpful). It’s too bad that SpaceX couldn’t do the launch for him. Maybe next time.

According to this story, the Chinese are going to launch a space station. They don’t have a date, though:

China will launch Shenzhou VII with three astronauts in September 2008, after the Beijing Olympic Games…

After the launch of Shenzhou VII, a space station with 20 tons will be built…

Why wait until after the Olympics? What does this have to do with anything? Unless, of course, the purpose of the program is primarily for national prestige, as opposed to actually accomplishing something that’s important.

And “after the launch of Shenzhou VII” could be anywhere from October, 2008 (unlikely) until…the end of time. But we’d better hurry–we’re in a race!

According to this story, the Chinese are going to launch a space station. They don’t have a date, though:

China will launch Shenzhou VII with three astronauts in September 2008, after the Beijing Olympic Games…

After the launch of Shenzhou VII, a space station with 20 tons will be built…

Why wait until after the Olympics? What does this have to do with anything? Unless, of course, the purpose of the program is primarily for national prestige, as opposed to actually accomplishing something that’s important.

And “after the launch of Shenzhou VII” could be anywhere from October, 2008 (unlikely) until…the end of time. But we’d better hurry–we’re in a race!

According to this story, the Chinese are going to launch a space station. They don’t have a date, though:

China will launch Shenzhou VII with three astronauts in September 2008, after the Beijing Olympic Games…

After the launch of Shenzhou VII, a space station with 20 tons will be built…

Why wait until after the Olympics? What does this have to do with anything? Unless, of course, the purpose of the program is primarily for national prestige, as opposed to actually accomplishing something that’s important.

And “after the launch of Shenzhou VII” could be anywhere from October, 2008 (unlikely) until…the end of time. But we’d better hurry–we’re in a race!

Mojave seems to be recovering from the construction of the Highway 58 bypass:

In four years, Mojave Airport has gone from an under-utilized airport and civilian flight test facility to a spaceport with a worldwide reputation as a “Silicon Valley” for the emerging commercial space industry.

New companies are arriving and established tenants are seeing their contracts and payrolls grow.

Companies such as Scaled Composites – which won international acclaim for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded, manned space program – and XCOR Aerospace are among the cutting-edge aerospace firms outgrowing their existing facilities as they add employees and projects.

Here’s a gorgeous picture of Tuesday’s launch taken from the wildlife preserve. High technology set against a foreground of nature.

Keith Cowing has a roundup.

I don’t necessarily agree with all (or even any) of them, but it’s useful to see what the space-interested community has to say.