UPDATED 18:46 PM EST, January 16, 2013
LAS VEGAS (AP) — NASA is partnering with a commercial space company in a bid to replace the cumbersome "metal cans" that serve as astronauts' homes in space with inflatable bounce-house-like habitats that can be deployed on the cheap.
A $17.8 million test project will send an inflatable room that can be compressed for delivery into a 7-foot tube to the International Space Station, officials said Wednesday during a news conference at North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace.
