spacetoday.net: BEAM deployed on ISS

Posted: Mon, May 30, 2016, 3:48 PM ET (1948 GMT)
BEAM expanded on ISS (NASA)

An expandable module on the International Space Station extended to its full size May 28 after an earlier effort failed. Mission controllers, working with astronaut Jeff Williams, spent more than seven hours gradually expanding the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) by manually adding air to the module. The air pressure eventually stretched the module to its full length and diameter, after which air tanks in the module activated to bring the module up to full pressure. An effort May 26 to deploy the module was halted after a couple hours of work when the module did not expand as quickly as expected. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace engineers believe that fraction among layers of fabric that comprise the module may have slowed the module's expansion.