The first expandable habitat in space that is now attached to the International Space Station was finally and successfully deployed, completely inflating as the first attempt failed just a few days before, when pressure was applied into the balloon type structure.

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This attachable space habitat is known as Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) which was transported via the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule last April. This advanced space habitat technology provides shelter from radiation and other space debris while living in microgravity conditions, especially in near future long term spaceflights such as manned missions to Mars. Apart from this, BEAM is also lightweight and can significantly lessen the cargo load for these future missions.

According to the developers of BEAM, Bigelow Aerospace, the private space company is now looking forward to designing more expandable living spaces for space travel, and eventually "space hotels".

The first attempt was carried out last May 26 as the BEAM inflation was streamed on NASA TV. However, this operation was stopped after NASA engineers realized that the module did not show signs of expanding even if constant pressurization was applied on it.

According to NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams who led the BEAM mission, the team believes that this delay was caused since the module was previously packed too tight, which makes it more challenging to expand.

On May 28, BEAM was finished inflating some 10 minutes after the pressurization process began. When BEAM was fully completed installing, the crew aboard the space station equalized the applied pressure where the module will be tested for a period of two years. A popping sound was heard according to the crew however, despite that, the second inflation attempt went on smoothly.

NASA says that there will be leak checks performed on BEAM to monitor its structural integrity where NASA astronaut Jeff Williams will be the first person to step inside the expandable space habitat, which is expected within the week.

TagsBeam, expanding space habitat, inflatable expandable space habitat, ISS, International Space Station, NASA