US space agency NASA is preparing to explore the feasibility of expandable habitats, or inflatable ‘space houses’, in a new mission that launches this Friday (8 April). A spacecraft supplying the International Space Station (ISS) will take off at 4.43pm ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, loaded with research, hardware, supplies and a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), which will be thoroughly tested over the coming years.