The debris is essentially the residue of hundreds of rocket launches, exploration missions and other man-made objects left circling Earth.

WSJ: Falling Satellite Debris Might Hit U.S.

Bigelow, who launched a small prototype of the module in 2006 after licensing the patent from NASA, will rely on Boeing Co. and Southern California rocket developer Space Exploration Technologies to provide transportation.

NPR: Space Station To Get $18 Million Balloon-Like Room

The list of rich men obsessed with space exploration is as long as an Apollo rocket.

FORBES: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos licked by James Lick in space race

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop these capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration.

ENGADGET: NASA awards Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada $30 million in contracts

His company, Space Exploration Technologies (or "SpaceX"), is developing a rocket called Falcon 1.

FORBES: The New Space Race

The rocket is being designed to carry out the agency's future human space exploration goals, such as sending astronauts to visit an asteroid or Mars.

MSN: Giant deep-space rocket passes key test - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News