Bigelow Aerospace made a cryptic announcement late Monday, stating that the company “will be making a very important and exciting announcement” at the National Space Symposium on April 10. About what? “For the first time, we will be presenting our business plans that we have kept to ourselves until now. This information that we plan to announce on April 10 at the Bell [sic] Aerospace Exhibit Center should help support the private space movement.” (I presume they mean the Ball Aerospace Exhibit Center.) Will this be about their Sundancer spacecraft, first announced at the AIAA Space 2006 conference in September? Or do they have something else up their sleeves?

Speaking of the Journal, the front page of today’s issue has an article about the lingering beef between Burt Rutan and Jim Benson. (Yes, subscription required. Blame the Journal, not me.) As many readers are already aware. SpaceDev, founded by Benson, built the hybrid rocket motor used by Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, but the two had a rather public falling out, which included threats of lawsuits by Rutan (which, the article states, were not followed through “to avoid the expense and distraction of litigation”.) The two now, of course, are rivals, with Rutan leading the development of SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic and Benson starting a new company to help fund development of SpaceDev’s Dream Chaser concept. For those who have followed this issue over the last few years, there’s not too much new here, although reported Andy Pasztor does get comments from both Benson and Rutan.

One other item of note in the article: Benson tells the Journal that he is planning “a nationwide competition to hand out free rides aboard his spacecraft” that will be formally announced in the next few weeks.

An article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) about the spike in sales of space memorabilia in the wake of the Lisa Nowak case mentioned in passing one other sale of interest to personal spaceflight enthusiasts:

Demand for memorabilia has spiked ever since billionaires started dabbling in private space travel and the Chinese government became interested in space. Aurora Auctions, of Bell Canyon, Calif., recently sold a brown M&M that left the Earth’s atmosphere in 2004 aboard the Paul Allen-financed SpaceShipOne. It went for $1,500.

“It was flown on the very first mission,” says Victoria Campbell, Aurora’s founder and chief executive. “That’s very important.”

Hmmm… I’ve got a whole bag of specially-branded M&Ms that were distributed at the X Prize flights in Mojave. Think that’s worth $1,500? Probably not. How about $1.50? It is a big bag, you know…

Microsoft and AMD, the sponsors of the “Vanishing Point” contest conducted online last month, announced Monday the winner of the grand prize, William Temple of Sacramento. Temple will get a suborbital spaceflight provided by Rocketplane Kistler; the date of his flight wasn’t announced although RpK is planning to begin commercial flights of the XP vehicle around 2009. For those wondering about taxes, which tripped up one other prize winner, Temple is also getting $50,000.