Adventurous travellers could soon be bedding down in an inflatable room in space.
Over the weekend, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) successfully deployed an extendable add-on housing area that could one day revolutionise life in space, says Quartz.
However, the "space hotel" might need to adopt a catchier name to entice tourists – it is currently known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (Beam).
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The Beam prototype, which arrived at the ISS on a cargo spacecraft in April, was gradually pumped full of air over three days. This was the second attempt to inflate the module, after the first try last week ended in failure due to technical problems.
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The extendable room is the work of Bigelow Aerospace in Nevada, whose founder, Robert Bigelow, already owns a chain of hotels on Earth.
It uses a secret material which is easily folded for transportation and able to inflate in space, but still being tough enough to endure life in orbit.
The Beam will remain at the station for a two-year testing period to confirm it can withstand radiation and collisions with space debris, such as the mini-meteorite that chipped a viewing window on the ISS in 2012.
"Most of the time the module will be closed, but the crew will go in a handful of times to collect data and take a look," Joel Montalbano, the deputy ISS manager at Nasa, told New Scientist in April. Although the prototype has no windows, Montalbano says the 13ft long and 10ft 6in wide module will "feel roomy".
If testing is successful, scientists believe a much larger "space hotel" could be ready to receive visitors within a decade.
