I'm wondering if both Beal and Bigelow are shooting themselves in the foot by striving to keep it "Made in the US". I know Beal's venture regrettably has folded, but Bigelow could do the R&D in the US but do the actual mass production in Asia for 1/5th or 1/3rd the cost. Russia and India especially have heaps of very talented and cheap engineers etc and like it or not, American, European and even Japanese expertise is too expensive now compared to "Third World" alternatives. The cost of doing just about anything in the West is often too high because of too much taxation and regulation and I know many Western companies now outsource offshore eg Microsoft in Bangalore, India.

If indeed NASA starts interfering in Bigelow's venture by blocking exports, well, no US-issued export license is needed if Bigelow makes these el cheapo TransHab knock-offs in South Korea or somewhere. From that newpaper article, he seems to be investing A LOT in building both test and production facilities and other infrastructure in Nevada. I take it he's had to comply already with many local, state and federal regulations which don't exist in many countries. I don't want to read in two years an open letter to the aerospace community from Bigelow bitter about having to shut down operations because of NASA competition or bureaucratic meddling or whatever. Beal's was enough.

I'm not on an anti-American rant here - the Americans are pioneers and aren't alone in wanting to go it alone - Europe just HAD to have its own heavy launch booster and now Japan wants one, too, for example. But if the money's there, contract out to existing suppliers, don't try to reinvent the wheel is what I'm saying. It's been said before, of course.