More room on the International Space Station
NASA extended its contract with Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station due to budget cuts that have delayed commercial U.S. alternatives, the U.S. space agency said. NASA extended its contract with Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station due to budget cuts that have delayed commercial U.S. alternatives, the U.S. space agency said.
Nasa has inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station (ISS), two days after running into problems during the first attempt.
The operation to expand and pressurise the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, took three days.
Astronaut Jeffrey Williams spent seven hours on Saturday opening and closing an air valve to expand the compartment.
Enough air finally seeped inside so that the white pod could stretch to its full 13ft (3.96m) in length and 10.5ft (3.2m) in diameter -the volume equivalent to a small bedroom.
Internal air tanks provided the final pressurisation to complete the job. – The Independent