An astronaut just deployed the Space Station's first inflatable habitat
The International Space Station has a brand new astronaut hangout.
On Saturday, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, with the help of mission controllers, expanded the new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), a 13-foot-long by 10.5-foot-wide room now attached to the outside of the Space Station.
Bigelow Aerospace -- founded by hotel magnate turned spaceflight entrepreneur Robert Bigelow -- hopes to one day create modules and even full space stations for paying customers who want a presence in orbit around Earth.
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The astronauts and cosmonauts of the Space Station won't be able to check out their sweet new digs quite yet. They should be allowed to enter the BEAM sometime in early June after mission controllers check for any possible leaks or problems with the module for the next week or so.
The BEAM made it to the station aboard SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon capsule on April 10 and was installed on the outside of the orbiting laboratory about six days later.
The BEAM is the first human-rated expandable module to fly in space, but Bigelow has flown two other modules of that kind: the Genesis I and Genesis II.
If you want to try your hand at building your very own BEAM module, NASA has actually released a step-by-step guide to folding an "origaBEAMi" out of paper.
Hopefully your paper BEAM inflation will go more smoothly than the actual BEAM's expansion.
NASA and Bigelow Mission managers on the ground had to stop and start the expansion of the module multiple times when they got unexpected pressure readings as they introduced air from the Space Station into the new habitat.
The space agency and Bigelow initially tried to expand the BEAM to its full length on Thursday, but some unexpected pressure readings forced them to stand down and reassess.
Saturday was the second attempt at expansion and it appeared to go much more smoothly.
Mission control directed Williams to introduce small amounts of air into the BEAM in order to inflate it in a slow and controlled fashion.
Whenever Williams introduced more air into the BEAM during short bursts seconds at a time, the module would produce expected popping sounds from "internal straps" being released, according to Bigelow.
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"Sounds sort of like when popcorn in a frying pan starts up," Williams told Mission Control during the expansion.
Once the manual inflation finished, mission controllers gave the call to pressurize the module, bringing it up to the same pressure as the Space Station.
It's a big year for Bigelow
Earlier in 2016, Bigelow announced that it hopes to potentially turn the Space Station itself into something like a "timeshare" by 2020.
The aerospace company hopes to attach a larger expandable habitat to the Space Station, giving astronauts more freedom to roam and scientists more space to do research.
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This larger Bigelow habitat could also be a destination for tourists hoping to get a glimpse of life in outer space before heading back down to Earth after a short stay.
Private companies are increasingly getting involved in spaceflight around the world.
Bigelow hopes that companies like Boeing and SpaceX -- both of which should start flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station within the next couple years -- will deliver people to Bigelow-built modules or even full space stations.
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Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
