International Space Station program

The four-person crew training ahead of their ISS mission.Photo: Axiom SpaceAxiom Space is gearing up for the launch of its second private crew to the International Space Station (ISS). The four astronauts will spend a little over a week conducting experiments within the orbital lab.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewA Falcon 9 rocket will send up the crew inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule nicknamed Freedom. The rocket is scheduled to blast offSunday at 5:37 p.m. ET from Launch…

Russia has agreed to keep its cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) until 2028 despite earlier threats to withdraw from the orbiting lab.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewNASA announced that its Russian counterpart “has confirmed it will support continued station operations through 2028,” the space agency wrote in a blog post on Thursday. Russia was the last to sign on to extended operations on the ISS, with Japan, Canada, and the participating countries of…

As the Axiom-2 crew prepares to take off to the International Space Station (ISS) in a few weeks from now, NASA is already looking ahead to the third private mission to the orbiting space station later this year, in a mission that will once again involve Axiom. On Wednesday, NASA announced that it signed a mission order with Axiom Space for a third crew of private astronauts to venture to low Earth orbit. The mission is slated for no earlier than November, with the exact launch date hinging on spacecraft traffic to the…

The Expedition 68 crew members welcoming Crew-6 members on board the space station.Photo: NASA TVFour astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, finally crossing through the space station’s hatch after ground teams troubleshooted a faulty sensor on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.SpaceX’s sixth operational crewed mission for NASA, aptly named Crew-6, blasted off on Thursday at 12:34 a.m. on board a Falcon 9 rocket. The crew was carried by SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavor, which was scheduled to dock to the ISS at…

The SpaceX Falcon 9 during a routine static fire test performed on the morning of Friday, February 24, 2023.Photo: NASA/Joel KowskyFour astronauts—two from NASA and the others from Russia and the United Arab Emirates—are set to blast off and begin their six-month mission onthe International Space Station. You can watch the launch live right here.SpaceX’s sixth operational crewed mission for NASA is scheduled for launch on Monday, February 27 at 1:45 a.m. ET (Sunday, February 26 at 10:45 p.m. PT). That’s probably a bit…

SpaceX Dragon Endurance arriving at the ISS on October 6, 2022.Photo: NASAA seat liner from the damaged Soyuz MS-22 capsule at the International Space Station has been relocated to Endurance, converting the SpaceX Crew Dragon to a five-person “lifeboat” should the crew be forced to evacuate in the event of an extreme emergency.The International Space Station mission management team made the decision to relocate the seat liner from Soyuz MS-22 to the Endurance Crew Dragon on January 12, according to a NASA statement. The…

The ISS has been in orbit for more than 20 years. Photo: NASAISS partners have a plan in place to deorbit the space station in nine years. A safety panel says this plan is now incomplete and potentially deficient as a result of the increasing density of low Earth orbit and as relations on the ground continue to deteriorate. NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel recently recommended that the space agency develop a deorbit plan for the ISS that can be immediately executed in case there is an emergency. During a public…

An artist’s depiction of Axiom’s future commercial space station in low Earth orbit.Illustration: Axiom SpaceA host of companies are in the process of developing commercial space stations. Aside from the complexities of assembling these structures in low Earth orbit, these companies are also trying to figure out which government agency should serve as the regulator once their orbital outposts are up and running. During panel discussions at the Beyond Earth Symposium, held in Washington, D.C., from October 12 to 13,…

The Ax-1 crew.Photo: Axiom SpaceIt appears that the International Space Station will welcome more amateur astronauts who are willing to pay a hefty price for trips to space. NASA is requesting proposals for two more private astronaut missions to the ISS that could fly to low Earth orbit as early as late 2023. The space agency is calling on the space industry to provide proposals for the third and fourth commercial spaceflights to the ISS, NASA announced on Thursday. NASA collaborated with private company Axiom Space to…

A view of the ISS from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor. Photo: NASA (AP)Roscosmos just revealed a model of its own space station to rival the International Space Station (ISS) in a move that outlines the Russian space agency’s plans following its debated departure from the orbiting station. For months, Russia has threatened to pull out of the ISS in a series of vague statements.Most recently, Roscosmos’ newly appointed head Yury Borisov said Russia plans on leaving the ISS after 2024, and begin constructing its own…