NASA resumes operations to deploy space station's inflatable room

U.S. space agency NASA on Saturday resumed operations to deploy the first experimental inflatable room at the International Space Station.

NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams began introducing air into the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) at 9:04 a.m. EDT (1304 GMT) in a 22-second burst followed by three other similar trials to see if it inflated as planned.

During initial operations Thursday to expand BEAM, the module's length and diameter did not increase with the increased internal pressure, as expected. As a result, NASA called off operations for the day and engineers depressurized the module Friday afternoon.

But this time, things went pretty well, with Williams reporting hearing popping sounds from BEAM, something "like popcorn in a frying pan."

"Good news: The 'pops' are the sounds of the internal straps releasing," Bigelow Aerospace, which built BEAM under a NASA contract, explained on Twitter.

"A welcome and expected step in the process," the Las Vegas-based space firm added.

Flight controllers confirmed the module is expanding both in length and diameter.

BEAM was launched to the orbiting lab last month in an effort to test and validate expandable habitat technology.

The module is 5.7 feet (1.7 meters) long and 7.75 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter when packed; 12 feet (3.7 meters) long and 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) in diameter when expanded, with 565 cubic feet (16 cubic meters) of interior volume, NASA said.

Inflatable habitats are designed to take up less room on a spacecraft, but provide greater volume for living and working in space once expanded, according to NASA.

This first test of an inflatable module will allow investigators to gauge how well the habitat performs and specifically, how well it protects against solar radiation, space debris and the temperature extremes of space, it added. Endit