Forget about a villa in Spain, how about a timeshare in space..?

Two aerospace companies are teaming up to launch giant space habitats to orbit, with the first lift-off targeted for 2020. Bigelow Aerospace will loft its giant, expandable B330 modules — each of which will provide one-third as much usable volume as the entire International Space Station (ISS) — aboard United Launch Alliance ULA Atlas V rockets. The agreement marks the first commercial partnership between a launch provider and a space-habitat provider, ULA representatives said. Two B330s should be ready to go by 2020, and the goal is to launch at least one of the modules that year.

Our hope is that NASA would be the primary customer for that structure, and that we would be given permission to commercialize and, essentially, we would be time-sharing.

Robert Bigelow

The first B330 would ideally be attached to the ISS, which would require NASA’s approval, said Bigelow Aerospace founder and president Robert Bigelow. But the module could also operate on its own, flying freely in space, he added. Bigelow and ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno see their companies’ partnership as a watershed moment for humanity’s exploration and exploitation of space. The first B330s should allow for greatly expanded opportunities for researchers, companies and space tourists in low Earth orbit, they said, and the modules could eventually allow for human habitation on and around the Moon, and even as far away as Mars.

We are standing on the very threshold of an expanded and permanent human presence beyond our planet.

Tory Bruno

Bigelow