SpaceX press release
From my e-mail today:
Congratulations to Robert Bigelow and the entire team at Bigelow Aerospace for the successful launch and deployment of their Genesis II space station module!
Launched from Russia aboard a Dnepr rocket, the unmanned module confirmed its inflation and good operating condition at 2:20 PM PDT, June 28.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher is scheduled to carry a payload for Bigelow Aerospace in 2009 or 2010, and Bigelow's vision of a system of orbiting space habitats serve as a promising destination for SpaceX's Dragon crewed spacecraft. Every successful step in the new era of commercial space exploration brings us all closer to the day when large numbers of humans can visit, live and work in space.
Genesis II updates can be found here: http://bigelowaerospace.com/multiverse/news.php#update.
With high regards,
---Elon
I continue to maintain that the private sector has an excellent chance of being all over space while NASA is still trying to bring the weights on their system under control.
This is not going to be problem-free: There is a very good chance that the next loss of life in space might be on a private mission.