Space
The entrepreneurial space race
Today's New York Times offers a sneak peek at Bigelow Aerospace's space station model. The inflatable modules, which are set to launch by 2014 and accommodate visitors by 2015, would make up the world's first privately-owned space station. President Obama's 2011 budget proposal would dedicate $6 billion to the development of commercial space crafts, with this week's successful launch of the privately-held Falcon 9 shuttle bolstered that faith in space travel privatization. Bigelow will lease the space station (at $395 million a pop) to countries that lack funding for their own space programs, while simultaneously being a source of revenue for the commercial space shuttle companies that Obama plans to fund. "This represents the entrance of the entrepreneurial mind-set into a field that is poised for rapid growth and new jobs," Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., a NASA administrator, said. "And NASA will be driving competition, opening new markets and access to space and catalyzing the potential of American industry."
