This is the same sort of paradigm as the current U.S. unmanned launch program. Private companies launch NASA cargoes.
Boeing has the CST-100, which is a seven-crew capsule.
SpaceX has the Dragon, which has already flown an unmanned orbital flight; it is the first private company to go into space last year, and will send an unmanned Dragon to the ISS this year.
Lockheed Martin took the Orion and is developing another version of it. It won't fly for a while but will be good for deep space missions.
Dream Chaser is a 7 crew space plane that is loosely based on the old X-20 Dyna Soar.
There is also Bigelow Aerospace, which is working on a inflated commercial space station. Don't laugh too much; the design for the BA 330 has as much toughness as the ISS.
Inflated modules make a lot of sense since they can be substantially larger than a conventional module.
Everything up there is limited by the size of the rockets. Solar panels are tightly folded for launch, an inflatable module is the equivalent of a folded structure.
Space police
www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2011/110526-x-37b-otv.htm - Cached26 May 2011 – The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space planes are a cloak-and-dagger project, ... when he heard the second X-37B was launching. Hiding such an event is nearly impossible. ... “I thought, ‘Oh great, not again,’ ” he says. ...
I know how they hide it while it is in orbit!! Cool trick!