Building on lessons they continue to learn from their two space modules still operating in low Earth orbit, the team at Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., is accelerating its push to get a habitable version launched.

The initial focus of that work is Sundancer, a larger version of the subscale Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 spacecraft now in orbit. Sundancer will have 175 cubic meters of habitable space and come fully equipped with life support systems, attitude control, on-orbit maneuvering systems, the ability to reboost itself and, at the end of its life, the ability to conduct a controlled deorbit. It would support a crew of up to three individuals for varying mission durations and eventually provide the backbone for the first commercial space station.

…continue reading at Space.com

Rocketplane Global CEO George D. French today extended his personal congratulations to , a 32 year old flight attendant from France who won the Instant Winner portion of the Nestle “Break Ultime” contest to promote the launch of the new recipe for the Nestle flagship Kit Kat candy bar.  The contest began in January, with 45 million individual entry codes printed on the inside of candy bar wrappers where a customer visits the contest website or sends an SMS message to see if the entry code is the winner.

The contest, designed by the JWT agency in Paris, features a theme road show presentation which has traveled to major cities in France, in addition to theme kiosk sales in stores and special character promotions visiting shopping centers.  Traditional TV ads and internet media channels were also employed.  The campaign has been very successful for Nestle with a significant increase in sales, and shows that space travel can be made exciting and interesting to the general public.

“I was very lucky and I am very privileged. I simply played a game on a chocolate bar, which I bought in a supermarket, just like that. There was a game marked on the package but I really didn’t pay attention so I threw the packet in the dustbin. Two hours later I said to myself, ‘you know, what if I play that game’. So I got it out of the bin and I went on to the Internet and followed the directions.” said Mathilde Epron.

The Nestle promotional contest will continue in France until November 30th, when a second flight ticket will be awarded in a random drawing from all those who have visited the contest website and registered.

Misuzu Onuki, the Rocketplane Director of Asian Business Development said “A $1 chocolate has brought her the sweetest dream in the world. Space tourism should be more reachable to the general public.” She expects that the winner will be an ambassador to tell about the charm of space tourism to us, especially working women who now do not think so much about space tourism and can see that Mathilde Epron is the same kind of working woman as them.

George French continued “As with our previous promotional customers Microsoft and Bindass (India), the Nestle contest shows that offering spaceflight experiences to the public can be very appealing and a successful way to promote a new product or service.  Space can once again become a “hot property” to promote brand messages of all kinds, and we are privileged to be able to play a role in this resurgence of interest in space.  We welcome the opportunity to fly Mathilde to space where she will be the first non-government astronaut from France, along with the other contest winner from the drawing later this year.”

The official rollout out of the new Virigin Mothership ‘Eve’ that will be used to loft SpaceShipTwo to 50,000 feet and then drop it, just before SpaceShipTwo ignites its engines to rocket into space.