NASA okays commercial airlock for space station

A commercial airlock built in partnership by NanoRacks and Boeing will be connected to the International Space Station in 2019, the companies announced Monday, after the proposed project won preliminary approval from NASA managers. NanoRacks plans to deploy small commercial satellites and CubeSats from the airlock, reducing the workload currently occupying time on the smaller equipment airlock inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. Only half of the Kibo airlock’s capacity is allocated to NASA and commercial clients — the rest goes to Japan. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 8)