'BEAM' Aboard: Experimental Inflatable Room Attached to Space Station

The International Space Station gained a brand new room on Saturday (April 16), but it will be another month before it grows large enough for the astronauts to enter. A first-of-its-type inflatable structure, the BEAM — or Bigelow Expandable Activity Module — built by Bigelow Aerospace, was attached to the rear-facing port of the space station's Tranquility node. Early Saturday, flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control in Houston began sending commands to the space station's