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Bigelow/Lockheed Martin "Orion Lite" - non-NASA spacecraft
Or at least Orion Lite is what they're calling it now. That may change for branding purposes.
Co-designed by Bigelow Aerospace (the inflatable space station guys) and Lockheed Martin
for launch on LockMart's Atlas V 402 or SpaceX's Falcon 9.
Orion Lite was shown recently to the Augustine Commission that is determining the future of US
manned space flight, and from their reaction to it and SpaceX's Dragon our space efforts could have
a distinctly private future - as in it looks like NASA will be getting out of the business of low Earth
orbit flights, at the least.
It follows the same mold line as NASA's Orion, which is far behind schedule and may get canceled,
but is smaller in diameter. Even so, because it's not designed for lunar missions it can carry 7 vs.
NASA's 4 (LEO version). Smaller tanks etc.
Estimated time to manned flight: 3 years, about the same as SpaceX's Dragon
Why not just use Dragon? Bigelow feels if for some reason one of the two capsules
has to be grounded he has a backup means to get large crews to his space stations.
Mr. Bigelow is no fool. That was NASA's mistake, and they blew it by canceling Shuttle
several alternatives such as the HL-20 (now SpaceDev's Dream Chaser) and the Venture Star.
How big a crew will his stations have? Once Sundancer is up and two BA-330's are also linked
to the hub it could handle a crew of 15, more than twice the size of an ISS crew. Even then three more
BA-330's could still be added for an even larger crew - each with its own docking port.
Outside view of the engineering model
Interior view
Co-designed by Bigelow Aerospace (the inflatable space station guys) and Lockheed Martin
for launch on LockMart's Atlas V 402 or SpaceX's Falcon 9.
Orion Lite was shown recently to the Augustine Commission that is determining the future of US
manned space flight, and from their reaction to it and SpaceX's Dragon our space efforts could have
a distinctly private future - as in it looks like NASA will be getting out of the business of low Earth
orbit flights, at the least.
It follows the same mold line as NASA's Orion, which is far behind schedule and may get canceled,
but is smaller in diameter. Even so, because it's not designed for lunar missions it can carry 7 vs.
NASA's 4 (LEO version). Smaller tanks etc.
Estimated time to manned flight: 3 years, about the same as SpaceX's Dragon
Why not just use Dragon? Bigelow feels if for some reason one of the two capsules
has to be grounded he has a backup means to get large crews to his space stations.
Mr. Bigelow is no fool. That was NASA's mistake, and they blew it by canceling Shuttle
several alternatives such as the HL-20 (now SpaceDev's Dream Chaser) and the Venture Star.
How big a crew will his stations have? Once Sundancer is up and two BA-330's are also linked
to the hub it could handle a crew of 15, more than twice the size of an ISS crew. Even then three more
BA-330's could still be added for an even larger crew - each with its own docking port.
Outside view of the engineering model
Interior view