NASA won’t try Friday to expand its Bigelow Aerospace Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), as the civil space agency failed on Thursday in its first attempt.
NASA said on Twitter its team needed more time for assessments, including another pressure reading and safing activities before trying again. The agency, early Thursday, said it was working closely with Bigelow to understand why the habitat failed to fully expand on its first attempt. Engineers met at Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss a path forward.
NASA spokeswoman Kathryn Hambleton said late Thursday 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. She said ground teams will look for any changes in the module’s shape following the conclusion of Thursday’s operations and the ISS crew will take additional pressure readings.
Hambleton during about two hours of expansion Thursday, BEAM’s length and diameter did not increase as expected with the increased internal pressure and teams decided to stand down from operations for the day. Crew members aboard ISS are safe and both BEAM and the station are in a stable configuration.
NASA said on Twitter that three straps holding BEAM in its packed configuration were cut to start the process. Bigelow said on Twitter that it saw some expansion of BEAM and that the habitat was “slightly above the pressure curve,” but didn’t elaborate. Bigelow did not return multiple requests for comment on Thursday.
Bigelow said on its website astronauts were to initiate an automated deployment sequence, allowing BEAM to passively expand to its full volume of 16 cubic meters. NASA did not respond to multiple requests for by press time Thursday.
BEAM is an experimental program to test and validate expandable habitat technology and is set to be tested on ISS over a two-year demonstration period. Goals of the demonstration period include increasing the technology readiness level of expandable habitat technology, demonstrating launch and deployment as well as folding and packing techniques, determining radiation protection capability and demonstrating design performance such as thermal, structural, mechanical durability and long-term leak performance.