NASA aborts attempt to deploy temporary habitat at ISS

PanARMENIAN.Net - NASA aborted an attempt to deploy a temporary habitat at the International Space Station after it failed to inflate to full size on Thursday, May 26, AFP reports.

The new room, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), is part of an experiment to test expandable habitats astronauts might use on the Moon or Mars in the coming decades.

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams took charge of the inflation early Thursday in cooperation with mission control in Houston.

However, the module made little progress despite two hours of effort, AFP says.

"Flight controllers informed NASA astronaut Jeff Williams that BEAM had only expanded a few inches in both length and diameter at the time the operation ceased for the day," the US space agency said in a statement.

Fully expanded, the module should reach a size of four meters by 3.23 meters wide.

NASA said it would not try again Friday, but would hold a news conference to discuss the problem.

"NASA and Bigelow Aerospace are working closely to understand why the module did not fully expand today as planned," a NASA spokeswoman said.

"Engineering teams will monitor the module overnight for structural changes that could result in either larger volume or lower internal pressure before meeting on Friday morning to discuss options moving forward."