Michael Belfiore revealed yesterday afternoon that not only was Bigelow Aerospace planning to unveil a new web site, it was going to announce a new service: it will fly photos or other small mementos on its prototype modules it will be launching starting this year. The first Genesis module, scheduled for launch on June 16 on a Dnepr, will carry 1,000 items provided by Bigelow employees; they will drift inside the module and be visible on video camera within the module. Starting with the Genesis 2 launch (in September if all goes well), the company will allow members of the public to fly items for a price.

The new web site went live last night. The home page looks a little cheesy, with the planet images representing various parts of the site and the cursor turning into an “alien” face that serves as a company logo, but overall the site is a step up from previous iterations. The “Fly Your Stuff” program allows people to send their photos or small items to space for $295. The company also plans to provide video feeds from both within and outside the Genesis modules. Slightly creepy, though, is the “Life and Death” feature: “We anticipate being able to display images of living systems flown aboard Bigelow Aerospace spacecraft.” What sort of “living systems” remains undefined. (Of course, if you think that’s a great idea, you can let them know through their online questionnaire.)

Bigelow Aerospace is not nearly as secretive as it was just a couple of years ago: it now invites journalists to tour its Las Vegas facility where it is working on inflatable module designs, and it’s even revamped its web site. Still, it’s not very forthcoming about its plans, particularly in the near term. We do know the launch of Genesis 1 (or Genesis Pathfinder 1, by some accounts), its first prototype, is planned for next month on a Dnepr rocket, but that information comes from the Roskosmos manifest, not Bigelow itself. Today, the Allied Defense Group announced that its SeaSpace subsidiary has sold two 6.1 meter antennas to Bigelow. These antennas will be used at “commercial ground station facilities in Alaska and Hawaii.” The contract is a follow-on to a deal last year where SeaSpace sold a similar antenna system to Bigelow. The report doesn’t offer any more details, although the note that the antennas will be located at commercial facilities in Alaska and Hawaii suggests that Bigelow may be working with a company like Universal Space Network, which operates a worldwide network of ground stations, including locations in Alaska and Hawaii. That doesn’t mean too much in the overall scheme of things, other than to suggest that Bigelow does seem to be continuing to make progress.

The Sunday Times of London offered a brief overview of Bigelow Aerospace and its plans for developing inflatable habitats that could be used for orbital space hotels. There are few, if any, new details about Bigelow’s effort in the article, although it will be gratifying to many that the Times played the story straight, without any snickering or snarky remarks.

A somewhat less viable scheme was profiled last week in the Long Island (NY) Press. Like their colleagues in the UK, the Press plays it straight in a discussion of Space Island Group, a long-running effort by Gene Myers to build orbital habitats using space shuttle external tanks. This is a case, though, where a little skepticism and hard reporting would have benefited the reader: the Press described Myers as “among the handful of pioneers with major financial backing who say that it won’t be long before vacationers are packing their bags for space.” However, there’s no evidence that Myers has “major financial backing”, or that his work is that much farther along than when I read his self-published book on the topic as a Caltech student over 15 years ago. At least the Press is in good company: Business 2.0 also played it straight with Space Island Group earlier this year, claiming that the company will start launching modules “as early as 2008″ – apparently without digging to see if there’s any there there.

New Scientist magazine has a brief note about plans by Bigelow Aerospace to launch its first test of its inflatable habitats, modules that could eventually be used for orbital hotels. A curious comment in the article: “The launch dates cannot be divulged because the use of an ICBM means the information falls under US arms trade restrictions.” That’s odd, because the launch dates of Dnepr rockets (the former SS-18 ICBM converted into a low-cost launcher) are often reported well in advance. In fact, you can see an official Roskosmos launch schedule that includes a “Genesis-1″ launch on June 13 from a new launch site, Dombarovsky. Uh-oh: did I just violate “US arms trade restrictions”?

Virgin Galactic has been in discussions with Bigelow Aerospace about the possible development of space hotels using Bigelow’s inflatable module technology, according to an article in Hotel Magazine. Richard Branson said in Dubai last week that Virgin Galactic is considering using Bigelow’s modules and unspecified space transportation systems to develop an orbital hotel:

We are talking to people who are developing hotels for space. We are also talking to people who are developing launch craft to get hotels into space. People know that we can turn something that might seem a bit bizarre into a commercial reality. Personally, I think there’s a demand for space hotels.

The unanswered questions here are when Virgin might pursue a space hotel, and how it would ferry passengers there and back. An orbital spacecraft (SpaceShipThree?) has been in the long-term plans for Burt Rutan, but it seems unlikely this would be ready until well after 2010, given the current focus on SpaceShipTwo and the technological challenges of developing an orbital version. Of course, it will take some time for Bigelow to develop full-scale inflatable modules, although the company is planning the first launch of subscale test modules later this year.