Bigelow Aerospace transferred the BEAM space station module to NASA NASA hired a new company to supply the inflatable module on the International Space Station

Bigelow Aerospace moves the BEAM space station module to NASA

NASA hired a new company to provide engineering support for an inflatable module on the International Space Station, which was originally built and managed by Bigelow Aerospace.

In its January 18 procurement documents, NASA announced a $250,000 contract with ATA Engineering in San Diego, California, to provide engineering support services for the Bigelow Scalable Activity Module (BEAM), an inflatable module added to the space station in 2016. The module was built by Bigelow Aerospace, which was supported until December

NASA announced on December 10 that it intends to enter into an exclusive contract with ATA Engineering to handle these engineering services. The agency said the company is the only company qualified to provide this kind of support because it acted as a subcontractor for Bigelow in BEAM development and later support for module operations, including confirmation that module life could be extended until 2032 at the latest. In an earlier notice, NASA said that with the expiration of the engineering contract, Bigelow transferred ownership of BEAM to NASA's Johnson Space Center in December, which is one of the terms of the ongoing engineering contract granted by NASA to Bigelow in 2017 and does not involve a funding exchange or other consideration between NASA and Bigelow

Bigelow Aerospace was founded more than 20 years ago as a pioneer in the development of inflatable module technology and plans to use it on a range of space stations. In addition to BEAM, the company introduced two prototype inflatable modules, genesis 1 and 2, in 2006 and 2007, respectively. It has been developing a larger module called the B330 because it has a volume of 330 cubic meters when fully expanded

Still, Bigelow declined to bid for NASA's competition to install commercial modules on the International Space Station, saying the agency's funding was not enough to complete its business case. NASA selected Axiom Space in January 2020 to develop a commercial module that will be installed on the space station as soon as 2024

In March 2020, Bigelow Aerospace laid off all of its employees on the grounds that restrictions imposed by the Nevada state government shut down non-essential operations in the first few weeks of the outbreak. Since then, the company has not made any public comments on its future. Notably, it is not part of the "relevant party" that attended NASA's Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination Project conference last year to support the development of the commercial space station, nor is it any of the three teams that received NASA awards in December