NASA tries an inflatable room on the space station, likes it

NASA

NASA has tried Bigelow's expandable habitat on its International Space Station, and the agency likes it. Installed now for more than a year on the station, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module has passed key structural tests, and engineers now believe it will be capable of surviving in low Earth orbit for a longer period of time.

So this week, NASA announced that it intends to extend the lifetime of the station's new, expandable room. Initially, the module was to be attached to the station for two years, but NASA says it wants to extend the lifetime for three years from now, with two additional one-year options. The Bigelow habitat, therefore, could remain on-station well into the early 2020s.