Ben Waring R00lz! Also, Entrepreneurial Private Space Stuff!!

Yay! The launch of my brother's company's orbital module went off as planned (at long last, may I say. Ben has been stuck in a Russian missile fscility near the Khazakstan border, eating dubious metballs, for like 8 weeks now.)

Thanks to a boost today from a Russian and Ukrainian rocket-for-hire company, a U.S. private space firm has sent a novel expandable module toward Earth orbit—and a step forward in providing commercial space habitats.

Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nevada is flying prototype hardware that the firm anticipates will advance habitable structures in space to carry out research and manufacturing, among other tasks.

The Genesis-1 module was lofted skyward atop a Dnepr booster under contract with ISC Kosmotras. The rocket—a converted Cold War SS-18 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile—roared out of its silo from the Yasny Launch Base, an active Russian strategic missile facility....

Once the module is in orbit, command and control of the hardware will be done through a futuristic-looking Bigelow Aerospace Mission Control Center in North Las Vegas. Ground operators there will also receive video and images from Genesis-1.

There is the potential, [my bro's boss Mike] Gold pointed out, for Genesis-1 to remain in orbit for years with the company's space engineers hoping to learn how the module's systems withstand the harsh space environment—including exposure to natural and human-made space debris, as well as radiation. Extensive testing of the expandable module that's fashioned out of advanced soft-goods material has been done both in the United States and in the Ukraine, he said.

You can also read further updates on this guy's space.com blog, and more about Bigelow's inflatable space modules here and here. I feel like this is something all the nerds in the blogosphere can get behind, regardless of their politics.

Comments

[Matt]

Congratulations to them, but no knocking central asian food, which is great. Really, it's wonderful stuff. They should be espeically sure to check out the mellons.

[belle waring]

the food he was getting outside the missle base was, indeed, great. it was more a problem with the meatballs in the s33krit ex-soviet ICBM launch base canteen.

[Matt]

Yeah, I bet the canteen food isn't so hot. He should try to get some old soviet cosmonaut food- Borsch in a tube! I'm not kidding.

[Gary Farber]

I blogged the inflation here because of course, but WTF about your brother?

Please unpack.

[Doug]

Could he not eat some NY metballs? Their lead in the NL East is annoyingly large.

[M/tch M/lls]

I feel like this is something all the nerds in the blogosphere can get behind, regardless of their politics.

This makes me wonder whether Gil Scott Heron has a blog.