NASA To Test Bigelow Expandable Module On Space Station

"NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver announced Wednesday a newly planned addition to the International Space Station that will use the orbiting laboratory to test expandable space habitat technology. NASA has awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which is scheduled to arrive at the space station in 2015 for a two-year technology demonstration."

Keith's note: I will be live blogging the press conference at @NASAWatch

Keith's update: Apparently some news media were given advance copies of a press release and images while others were not. Some of us were given dial-in information for the press event, others were not. If NASA and its commercial partners want the media to pay attention to what it is they are doing, then they need to make it easy - not hard for us to do so. FAIL.

Keith's update: NASA photos and video can now be found here and here. Still nothing from the folks at Bigelow - they handed out thumb drives with materials at the Las Vegas event.