As we reported earlier this week, Robert Bigelow was planning to launch a test inflatable structure in space as the first stage of his planned hotel in space. The launch happened on Wednesday and the flight and inflation was a success. The Genesis flew aboard a Cold War-era ballistic missile launched from a pad in Russia’s Ural Mountains.
In a mission update released yesterday by Blowfeld…er… I mean Bigelow himself, he said:
“All Systems are operating within expected parameters. Temperature, avionics, solar arrays and battery power all remain positive. All of our initial orbits have had direct sunlight, which has helped in charging the main battery to maximum capacity.
“Pressure onboard the spacecraft has remained constant at 7.5 pounds per square inch (PSI). We have had multiple contacts with the ship, and received several data streams. While most of these current communication streams are dedicated to command and control of the spacecraft, we have downloaded several small images from the onboard cameras and hope to get more as more bandwidth in the data stream becomes available.”