CAPE CANVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts successfully inflated an experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, producing the world’s first such compartment.
The operation took much longer than expected, stretching over three days. Astronaut Jeffrey Williams spent seven hours Saturday opening and closing an air valve to expand the compartment. Enough air finally seeped inside so that the puffy white pod could stretch to its full 13 feet in length and 10 ½ feet in diameter — the volume equivalent to a small bedroom. Internal air tanks provided the final pressurization to complete the job.
Williams and his five crewmates will have to wait a week before venturing inside. NASA wants to make certain the chamber is airtight before opening the door.
It was NASA’s second shot at inflating the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, named for the aerospace company that created it as a precursor to moon and Mars habitats and orbiting tourist hotels.
BEAM barely expanded during Thursday’s inflation attempt. Experts believe the soft-sided compartment was packed tight for so long before last month’s launch that the fabric layers had trouble unfolding.
Pressure inside the chamber was relieved Friday to ease the friction among the multiple layers. That apparently did the trick. The cubicle swelled an additional six feet in length Saturday, looking more like a giant beach ball with every pulse of air.
In all, Williams opened the valve 25 times Saturday for a total of 2 ½ minutes’ worth of air flowing from the space station into the chamber.
NASA insisted on taking it slow to avoid a sudden pressurization of BEAM that could stress the connecting parts of the space station.
NASA paid $17.8 million for the technology demo, which could lead to a bigger inflatable room at the space station.
Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, who runs the North Las Vegas aerospace company, considers BEAM a test for future inflatable habitats for tourists orbiting Earth as well as astronauts on the moon or Mars. He’s working to fly a pair of private inflatable stations in another few years.
Because expandable spacecraft can be compressed for launch, the rockets can carry more cargo, yet space travelers can still enjoy lots of room. The standard aluminum rooms that make up the space station — essentially fancy cans — can never be larger than what fits into a rocket.
BEAM — empty except for sensors — is supposed to stay attached to the orbiting lab for two years so engineers can measure temperature, radiation levels, and its resistance to space debris impacts.
SpaceX delivered BEAM early last month, and it was installed on the outside of the 250-mile-high outpost. Launch delays kept it grounded an extra half-year.
On Friday, SpaceX pulled off another rocket landing, the third in just under two months.
The first-stage booster of the unmanned Falcon rocket settled vertically onto a barge 400 miles off Florida’s east coast, eight minutes after the late afternoon liftoff. Cameras on the barge provided stunning, real-time video.
‘‘Falcon 9 has landed!’’ said a SpaceX flight commentator.
The touchdown occurred after the rocket launched an Asian communications satellite. Like the last successful landing, this one was especially difficult given the speed and heat of the incoming 15-story booster.
SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk said via Twitter that the rocket’s landing speed was close to the design maximum. No one was aboard the barge at touchdown for safety reasons.
SpaceX’s first booster landing occurred in December — on land at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The California-based company followed up with a successful touchdown on its floating platform in the Atlantic in early April, then again May 6.
All three of those recovered boosters are now side by side, horizontally, in a SpaceX hangar. The second recovered booster will be tested and should fly on another mission later this year.
Musk wants to recycle boosters to lower launch costs and open space to more payloads and people. These first-stage boosters normally are discarded in the ocean. SpaceX is the only one to land the stages left over from orbital missions.
NASA is a major customer; SpaceX flies cargo to the space station and aims to transport astronauts, too, by the end of next year.
