An inflatable spacecraft launched Thursday from Russia has successfully extended its solar panels, says the U.S. company running the project.

Pictures on the website of Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas show the panels extended at the front and back of the craft, the second launched by the company.

An artist's rendering of a Genesis spacecraft in flight. It's about 4.4 metres long and 2.5 metres in diameter.
(Bigelow Aerospace/Associated Press)

Genesis II was about 4.4 metres long and 1.9 metres across at launch, but air expansion blows it up to about 2.5 metres in diameter once it's in orbit.

The craft is designed to test systems for future manned commercial space modules that Bigelow plans. The module is a one-third scale model of the eventual modules. Several could be linked to make a space station.

Genesis I and II are identical on the outside, but Genesis II has additional sensors and avionics. It has 22 video cameras inside and outside, compared to 13 on the first craft.

The modules have an expandable outer surface, with several layers of impact-resistant materials, wrapped around a central core with about 11.5 cubic metres of usable volume.

Genesis II carried paying freight, items and pictures the public paid to send into space in the company's Fly your Stuff program. It hopes to photograph the photos and items in orbit, and display them on its site.

It also plans to run a space bingo game on Genesis II "as a fun activity for the public."

Genesis I was launched on July 12, 2006, and is still sending data and images from Earth orbit, the company said. It circles the Earth every 96 minutes and it could last up to 13 years.

Both craft were launched on Dnepr rockets from the ISC Kosmotras Yasny Cosmodrome in the Orenburg region of Russia.

Robert Bigelow, who has run financial and real estate businesses, has invested $100 million US in Bigelow Aerospace and is prepared to put $500 million US into space stations by 2015, the Bigelow website said.