new york
—


The launch of a second private space station prototype has been delayed until late June




to allow additional tests of its Dnepr booster rocket.

Genesis 2, an inflatable module built by




Las Vegas




-based




Bigelow Aerospace, will fly four weeks later than planned due to the extra checks, said Robert Bigelow, the firm’s founder, in a statement released May 17




. The module was previously targeted for a late May launch from Russia’s Yasny Launch Base in Siberia.

“We now expect the launch of Genesis 2 to occur in late June,” Bigelow wrote.

Genesis 2, which follows the successful 2006 launch of Bigelow Aerospace’s Genesis 1 spacecraft, is an inflatable module laden with 22 cameras, a “Space Bingo” game




and personal items launched for paying customers. It is the second Bigelow Aerospace Pathfinder Mission aimed at testing technology that could one day lead to privately built space stations in Earth orbit.

“The path to space has never been and will never be simple or




easy,” Bigelow said in his statement.

The




Genesis 2 liftoff has encountered a series of delays, the latest of which can be traced back to the July 2006 failure of a Dnepr rocket, which




prompted




ISC Kosmotras, the booster’s joint Russian-Ukrainian launch provider,




to postpone launches




until a successful April 17 launch.

“[W]e experienced similar delays on the Genesis 1 campaign and, of course, were quite pleased with the end result,” Bigelow stated. “Moreover, since Genesis 2 contains a variety of important mementos, photos and other personal items as part of our ‘Fly Your Stuff’ program, both Kosmotras and Bigelow Aerospace are proceeding with great caution in order to safely and successfully deliver the spacecraft to orbit.”

Like Genesis 1, Genesis 2 is powered by a series of solar panels designed to deploy in Earth orbit. The new spacecraft,




identical in size to its predecessor,




is about




4.4 meters




long. Its diameter is designed to expand from an initial




1.9 meters




to about




2.54 meters




when fully inflated.

The module is a one-third scale version of future manned orbital modules planned for launch by Bigelow Aerospace, the firm has said.

Bigelow Aerospace officials plan to launch a new inflatable module, dubbed Galaxy, in 2008. The human-habitable Sundancer vehicle could follow in 2010 as a predecessor to the larger BA 330 module, the Las Vegas-based firm has said


.