INFLATABLE SPACE ADDED TO STATION
NASA slowly inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, with better luck than the first try two days earlier.
Astronaut Jeffrey Williams repeatedly opened and closed a valve, allowing air to flow from the space station into the compartment, looking more and more like a giant marshmallow-like pod.
It was tedious work. Five hours into the operation, Williams had opened the valve 16 times and allowed a minute of air, all told, to rush in. Mission Control reported more than three feet of growth in the length of the structure, the first of its kind for space fliers.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, barely expanded during Thursday’s inflation attempt. Experts believe the soft-sided compartment was packed up tight for so long before last month’s launch that the fabric layers had trouble unfolding.
Pressure inside the chamber was relieved Friday to ease the friction among the multiple layers. Engineers hoped that would enable it to stretch to its full 13 feet in length and 10½ feet in diameter — the volume equivalent to a small bedroom.
NASA paid $17.8 million for the technology demo. SpaceX delivered BEAM early last month, and it was installed on the outside of the 250mile-high outpost. Launch delays kept it grounded an extra half-year.