Las Vegas aerospace company in new partnership for space travel

A Las Vegas aerospace company is a giant leap closer to going where no Sin City company has gone before.

Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas and California-based Space Exploration Technologies on Thursday announced a new partnership to promote space travel to international customers flying SpaceX's Dragon reusable spacecraft launched atop its Falcon rocket to reach Bigelow's orbiting BA 330 space habitat.

"This is an incredibly exciting venture," SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Grantham said. "Our partnership with Bigelow should present opportunities to businesses and governments that previously didn't have access to space."

Bigelow Aerospace has a 342,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas and another factory in Maryland.

The company's founder, Robert Bigelow, made a fortune developing motels and hotels such as Budget Suites nationwide.

Nearly 15 years ago, he turned his attention to researching and developing spaceflight options for space agencies and businesses.

Bigelow Aerospace has launched two of its Genesis satellites into orbit using Russian rockets. It is working with Boeing to develop a spacecraft to ferry crews to the International Space Station and, eventually, to a Bigelow space station.

Last week the two companies conducted parachute drop tests of the spacecraft at the Delamar Dry Lake Bed near Alamo.

Bigelow and the Review-Journal were unable to connect for an interview Thursday.

SpaceX is a 10-year-old company started by PayPal founder Elon Musk.

The company designs, manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft from sites including Florida's Cape Canaveral and California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. It has more than 1,700 employees in California, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C. In 2010, SpaceX became the first commercial corporation to put a spacecraft into orbit and return it safely to Earth.

The companies said they would launch their marketing efforts in Japan.

Grantham said the companies aren't ready to publicly discuss what flights would cost, but she said they would cost "significantly less than what is currently available on the market" once the service starts as scheduled in 2015.

There's no an industry average for pricing, but Virgin Galactic, tickets on Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson's suborbital airline start at $200,000.

Grantham also didn't say how much it would cost to get the joint project off the ground, but SpaceX has a $75 million NASA grant to modify rockets built to launch satellites to instead carry people in spacecraft.

Necessary upgrades include a launch-escape system for emergencies and advanced environmental controls, which include plenty of oxygen.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft can carry seven passengers, while Bigelow's BA 330 can house as many as six people long-term.

Bigelow's 12,000-square-foot modules can be connected in space to form larger habitat. The company markets its modules to governments that are training astronauts or to companies interested in conducting research in space.

Joseph Katz, a professor of aerospace engineering at San Diego State University, said the joint project's technologies are workable and proven. The economics of space tourism remain untested, however.

"It's like trying to write a new book, and maybe there's no book like that in the market," Katz said. "The publisher asks you, 'Oh, that's a nice book, but who's going to buy it?' And you say, 'I don't know.' You produce something that may make sense for some people, but who's going to buy it?"

Katz said there are several other ventures designed to take civilians into space, but he called Virgin Galactic the "only serious one."

The privately funded Virgin Galactic has run dozens of test flights out of the New Mexican desert.

It hasn't given a firm start date, but its website says 500 people have put down $20,000 deposits to book its flights.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.