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The Bigelow Aerospace BA-2100/Olympus is a 2100 cubic meter habitation module which has more than 2x the pressurized volume of the ISS. Their Habitats are expandable, but by no means balloons; 16-18" of Vectran, Kevlar, air confinement layers and ballistic foam which become extremely hard once expanded.
Bigelow recently won a multi-million dollar award under the NASA NEXTStep program for space habitats, and they've been working with NASA on techs for a commercial follow-on to ISS. They also have launch and crew transportation agreements with Boeing and SpaceX, the companies set to begin crew transportation to ISS.
Previously BA-2100/Olympus was mostly artwork, but with the BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) module going to ISS in February in the cargo Trunk of Dragon CRS-8 for a 2 year test, it seems things are ramping up for them. Another BEAM is said to be under construction as an airlock for a smaller (but still large) BA-330 commercial space station module.
Bigelow says more information is coming, and they started a Twitter campaign last night. One of several tweets,
Up close & personal with Olympus, BEAM's distant big brother #BEAMmeUp https://t.co/GSNZRuqUNz
Bigelow recently won a multi-million dollar award under the NASA NEXTStep program for space habitats, and they've been working with NASA on techs for a commercial follow-on to ISS. They also have launch and crew transportation agreements with Boeing and SpaceX, the companies set to begin crew transportation to ISS.
Previously BA-2100/Olympus was mostly artwork, but with the BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) module going to ISS in February in the cargo Trunk of Dragon CRS-8 for a 2 year test, it seems things are ramping up for them. Another BEAM is said to be under construction as an airlock for a smaller (but still large) BA-330 commercial space station module.
Bigelow says more information is coming, and they started a Twitter campaign last night. One of several tweets,
Up close & personal with Olympus, BEAM's distant big brother #BEAMmeUp https://t.co/GSNZRuqUNz