Tag: NASA
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Butch and Suni weren’t the only ones: the stories of astronauts “stranded” in space
After a planned eight day mission to the ISS that launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams splashed down near Florida over nine months later on March 18, 2025. The two astronauts missed family events, birthdays, and Christmas while engineers tried to determine whether Boeing’s Starliner capsule would be safe to return with…
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SPHEREx starts science observations while PUNCH commissioning continues
NASA’s latest space telescope has taken the first science observations of its two-year mission to study the universe in dozens of colors. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) telescope maps the entire sky in 102 infrared wavelengths — or colors — to study galaxy formation, cosmic…
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Vast to complete Haven-1 primary structure in July 2025, ahead of target May 2026 launch date
A model of the final version of Vast’s Haven-1 space station is shown with a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked. The model was on display at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado in April 2025. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now Space habitation company, Vast, is now one year away from being able to stake its…
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Proposed 24 percent cut to NASA budget eliminates key Artemis architecture, climate research
The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Image: NASA Update May 3, 5:22 p.m. EDT: Corrected the location of Northrop Grumman’s facility housing the HALO module for the Gateway. The White House released its proposed federal spending budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday and with it a series of deep cuts to…
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NASA’s Psyche spacecraft hits a speed bump on the way to a metal asteroid
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, located nearly 150 million miles from Earth on the way to an unexplored metal asteroid, has stopped firing its engines after detecting a problem in its propulsion system. NASA published an update Tuesday revealing that the robotic spacecraft shut off its plasma thrusters earlier this month. The news wasn’t widely shared until…
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After convincing senators he supports Artemis, Isaacman nomination advances
The US Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced the nomination of private astronaut and businessman Jared Isaacman as the next administrator of NASA to the Senate floor, setting up the final step before he is confirmed. The vote was not unanimous, at 19–9, with all of the nay votes coming from senators on the Democratic…
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NASA just swapped a 10-year-old Artemis II engine with one nearly twice its age
A couple of weeks ago, ground teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida removed one of the four main engines from the Space Launch System rocket slated to send four astronauts on a voyage around the Moon next year. NASA officials ordered the removal of one of the massive rocket’s RS-25 main engines after…
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Juno reveals Io’s inner structure and volcanic activity; investigates north pole cyclones
New data from NASA’s Juno mission, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, has provided scientists with insight into the extreme winds and cyclones present within the gas giant’s atmosphere. The data allowed scientists to develop a model that better represents the fast jet stream circling Jupiter’s north pole, which is cluttered with many cyclones.…
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What’s it like to be 70 years old in space? “All those little aches and pains heal up.”
Not many people celebrate their birthday by burning a fiery arc through the atmosphere, pulling 4.4gs in freefall back to planet Earth, thudding into the ground, and emptying their stomach on the steppes of Kazakhstan. No one has ever done it on their 70th birthday. Perhaps this is appropriate because NASA astronaut Don Pettit is…
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Reusable rockets are here, so why is NASA paying more to launch stuff to space?
In an era of reusable rockets and near-daily access to space, NASA is still paying more than it did 30 years ago to launch missions into orbit, according to a study soon to be published in the scientific journal Acta Astronautica. Launch is becoming more routine. Every few days, SpaceX is sending another batch of…