CBS News correspondent Lara Logan interviews Robert Bigelow, the 72-year-old owner of the hotel chain Budget Suites of America. They meet at NASA’s Houston Mission Control, not to talk about Budget but to watch one of Bigelow’s designs float in space. That’s right, Bigelow has been designing large, lightweight structures for humans in space. At Mission Control, Logan and Bigelow watch via satellite, as an ISS crew deploys one of Bigelow’s expandable structures. If successful (if it expands in space as designed), the structures “could dramatically change how humans live and work in zero gravity.”
While watching the structure inflate in space, Logan asks Bigelow, “What is it like for you at this moment, watching this happen?” He says, “Severe curiosity as to what’s going to happen next.” Bigelow founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1999. The company has already launched a number of experimental space modules. The big plan is to send “full-scale manned space habitats to be used as orbital hotels, research labs and factories” into space. 60 Minutes airs Sundays at 7pm.
