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Space sausages and spatulas

n An inflatable, sausage-like craft rockets into space, giving life to a U.S. man's dream of a private space station.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 13, 2006

An experimental inflatable spacecraft bankrolled by real estate magnate Robert Bigelow rocketed into orbit Wednesday to test technology that could be used to fulfill his dream of building a commercial space station.

The Genesis I satellite flew aboard a converted Cold War ballistic missile from Russia's southern Ural Mountains at 6:53 p.m. Moscow time. It was boosted about 320 miles above Earth minutes after launch, according to the Russian Strategic Missile Forces.

The launch was a first for the startup Bigelow Aerospace, founded by Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. Bigelow is among several entrepreneurs attempting to break into the fledging manned commercial spaceflight business.

Mission controllers began communicating with Genesis about seven hours after liftoff. Early indication showed that the spacecraft was behaving as planned, according to a statement by the company.

The spacecraft's battery was at full charge, meaning it had deployed its solar panels, the statement said.

Despite the successful launch, hurdles remain.

Mission controllers planned to continue to download information from the spacecraft for several hours to determine its health. Once that's confirmed, it will begin the tricky job of ballooning itself to twice its pre-launch width in a process that could last several hours.

Bigelow said he hopes to use inflation technology to build an expandable orbital outpost made up of modules strung together like sausage links that could serve as a space hotel, science lab or even a sports arena.

Bigelow has committed $500-million toward building a commercial space station by 2015. So far, $75-million has been spent on the project.

The watermelon-shaped Genesis I is a one-third scale prototype of the commercial space station to which the company eventually hopes to fly humans.

Unlike the rigid aluminum international space station, Genesis I consists of a flexible outer shell and is layered with tough material such as Kevlar, which is found in bulletproof police vests, to withstand flying space debris.

In the 1990s, NASA studied inflatable technology for a possible trip to Mars, but later dropped the idea after deciding inflatable modules were too expensive.

[Last modified July 13, 2006, 06:32:06]