In a nutshell: With NASA phasing out of the launch business, Bigelow’s aggressive development of inflatable habitation modules — and his willingness to invest up to half a billion of his own $$$ to make it happen — puts him at the forefront of the privatization of space. He and anyone else wanting to exploit the high frontier will need wheels to get there. And the Obama admin plans to spend $6 billion over the next five years to encourage the private sector to produce the next generation of launch vehicles.
But suddenly — screee! — reporter Kenneth Chang shifts lanes and shears the guardrails. Quote:
His space stations are not his only interest in space. “I’ve been a researcher and student of U.F.O.’s for many, many years,” Mr. Bigelow said. “Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, come away absolutely convinced. You don’t have to have personal encounters.”
He added: “People have been killed. People have been hurt. It’s more than observational kind of data.”
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