After years of concept development and a couple unmanned test runs, Bigelow Aerospace is on the verge of actually puts its inflatable space habitats to work. First up will be the 4 meter long, 3.2 meter diameter, 1,360 kg Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) slated to be launched aboard a Falcon 9 and robotically attached to Node 3 of the International Space Station in 2016. Bigelow took over the technology when NASA abandonned its Trans-Hab program in 2000. Since then, Bigelow launched two prototypes, Genesis 1 and 2, between 2006 and 2007.
Check out the module in the infographic below.
Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration
![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)
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