Astronauts entered the inflated BEAM habitat for the first time today

[NeoGreen]

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/6/11866492/nasa-iss-inflatable-habitat-astronauts-first-data-collection

Astronauts entered the inflated BEAM habitat for the first time today
Astronauts aboard the ISS entered the station’s first inflatable habitat today. At 4:47AM ET this morning, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka opened the hatch to the expanded habitat and ventured inside to collect air samples and data from the various sensors embedded in the module. That data will ultimately tell NASA and Bigelow Aerospace — the habitat's manufacturer — how well the module, called BEAM, is holding up in the space environment. But according to Williams, the air in the habitat looked "pristine," albeit a bit cold.

The BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, is meant to test out how inflatable habitat technologies hold up in space. It was launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 8th, and then attached to the station's Tranquility module a week later. The module was designed to stay compact during launch and then expand in space, providing more interior room for astronauts to move around. Fully inflated, the BEAM provides 565 cubic feet (16 cubic meters) of internal space, as opposed to just 127 cubic feet (3.6 cubic meters) when it's deflated.

[tonyt53]

1. This is good stuff!