It won't blink like an airplane and it won't leave a trail behind. Instead, it will appear suddenly, move steadily across the sky and fade away just minutes later. To young, eager eyes already awake and brimming with excitement, it might look like something (or someone) making a quiet journey through the dawn sky.

The timing matches a well-known object passing overhead.

This Christmas, the International Space Station is also perfectly placed to reflect sunlight down to Earth during early-morning passes, making it one of the brightest objects in the sky.

Whether you choose to see it as a seasonal mystery or a space-age marvel, the sight may be brief, but it is beautiful and easy to spot with the naked eye  — so long as you are in the right place at the right time.

In the table below, we have listed some of the best times to look up over major cities, weather permitting — information gathered from AstroViewer.net.

To see the flyby, head outside with a clear view of the sky. You don't need binoculars or a telescope to spot it, just your eyes and a little patience.

The bright light comes from the International Space Station. It shines when sunlight reflects off the large structure while it orbits Earth every 90 minutes.

For those who want to check future sightings, or quietly confirm what they've seen, NASA's Spot the Station service shows when the space station will pass overhead from any location.

On Thursday (Dec. 18), President Donald Trump issued an executive order entitled "Ensuring American Space Superiority." Dominance off Earth is vital to the nation's security and prosperity, according to the document.

"The United States must therefore pursue a space policy that will extend the reach of human discovery, secure the Nation's vital economic and security interests, unleash commercial development and lay the foundation for a new space age," the executive order states. You can find the full text of the order here.

The document gets into some specifics about how to make this happen. For example, it calls for the nation to return astronauts to the moon by 2028, and to start construction of a permanent lunar base by 2030 "to ensure a sustained American presence in space and enable the next steps in Mars exploration."

Nuclear power in space is part of this vision. "Ensuring American Space Superiority" lists as a priority the deployment of nuclear reactors in Earth orbit and on the moon, and states that one such facility should be ready to launch toward the lunar surface by 2030.

These goals aren't terribly surprising. For example, NASA is already working toward a 2028 crewed moon landing via its Artemis program, which also aims to set up one or more bases near the lunar south pole over the ensuing years.

The agency has also been developing a potential fission reactor for use on the moon for several years now, with the goal of deploying it in the early 2030s. And a few months ago, we got wind of the more aggressive 2030 timeline for this power source, via a directive from then-NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy.

Duffy no longer leads NASA, by the way: Billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman officially took the reins, in a full rather than acting capacity, on Thursday.

The executive order also stresses the need to strengthen the United States' defensive capabilities in space.

For example, it calls for the development and testing of "prototype next-generation missile defense technologies by 2028 to progressively and materially enhance America's air and missile defenses pursuant to Executive Order 14186 of January 27, 2025 (The Iron Dome for America)." Trump has billed his vision for such a missile defense shield as a Golden Dome for the country.

Growing the space economy is a priority as well. Trump calls for the attraction of "at least $50 billion of additional investment in American space markets by 2028," and he wants to boost the cadence of rocket launches and landings, which are already at an all-time high (thanks in large part to SpaceX's incredible productivity).

The document also reinforces the plan to have one or more private outposts up and running in Earth orbit by the time the International Space Station retires in 2030.

The executive order gets the ball rolling on implementation as well. For instance, it directs NASA to submit within 90 days a plan explaining how it will achieve the "the policy objectives in this order regarding leading the world in space exploration and expanding human reach and American presence in space."

Also within 90 days, Isaacman (along with the Secretary of Commerce) must identify any "acquisition programs" that are 30% behind schedule, 30% over budget, underperforming and/or "unaligned with the priorities in this order, along with a description of their planned mitigation or remediation efforts."

"Ensuring American Space Superiority" also revokes Executive Order 14056, which was issued by then-President Joe Biden on Dec. 1, 2021. Biden's order officially renewed the National Space Council (NSC), which Trump revived from a nearly quarter-century hiatus in 2017, during his first term as president. The new order may spell the end for the NSC, which is chaired by the vice president and helps steer the nation's space policy.

Though the liftoff was successful, there was a downside: During the launch, Baikonur's Pad 31/6 — the only pad that hosts Russian crew and cargo launches to the ISS — sustained serious damage, and it's unclear when it will be repaired.

What is it?

The Soyuz (Russian for "unison") program began during the height of the space race in the 1960s as the Soviet Union's third human spaceflight program, following Vostok and Voskhod. Soyuz was originally conceived as part of a lunar landing project. Soyuz never made it to the moon, but it's still going strong decades later.

Aboard Soyuz MS-28 were three long-duration crew members: NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Mikaev and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The three men will participate in an eight-month mission as part of the ISS' Expedition 73.

Where is it?

This image was taken in low Earth orbit, around 263 miles (432 kilometers) above the Mediterranean Sea near Barcelona.

Why is it amazing?

While the Soyuz program itself is historic, the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft helped made some history of its own. With Soyuz MS-28 docked at the International Space Station, all eight of the ISS' visiting vehicle docking ports were occupied at the same time, a first in the orbital outpost's 25-year history.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the International Space Station and the Soyuz program.

The California-based startup is soliciting proposals for ground-based and space-based experiments to fly aboard Haven-1 as well as for potential private crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS), although the latter are contingent on awards by NASA.

Vast says Haven-1 will be the world's first crewed commercial space-based research and manufacturing facility when it reaches low Earth orbit, with the lab due to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as soon as the second quarter of 2026. The 31,000-pound (14,000 kilograms) space lab is designed to accommodate crewed visits totalling up to 160 astronaut days on board during its planned three-year lifespan.

The company, which has moved fast since its founding in 2021, says Haven-1 is well kitted out to host experiments in a diverse range of areas, including on-orbit pharmaceutical development, stem cell research, plant growth and human research and tech demos.

"The opportunity to expand access to microgravity research upon the world's first commercial space station is historic," Vast Principal Scientist Meghan Everett said in a statement. "We need to build on the heritage of the ISS National Lab and help scientists and industry continue world-changing research breakthroughs that are only possible in the novel environment of microgravity."

Vast adds that it is keen on research that could assist human exploration of the moon and Mars and breakthroughs that can benefit humans on Earth, such as studies of bone, muscle and cardiac health, medical tech and stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Vast has already secured partners for Haven-1 including Redwire, Yuri, Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation (JAMSS), Interstellar Lab and Exobiosphere.

In early November, Vast's Haven Demo launched on a Falcon 9 aiming to test critical systems for Haven-1 in orbit. Haven-1 itself is planned to be a stepping stone to a larger and more permanent presence in space, according to Vast, with the company aiming to secure support for the planned Haven-2 habitat through NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations program.

Orbital observation

It is a "wonderful world" indeed.

"Thinking, 'I'm sure everyone would want to see a photo of Earth,' I took a few shots right before going to bed. I think the amazing thing about the ISS is that you can see views like this without even trying,'" JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, an Expedition 74 flight engineer, wrote on social media on Thursday (Dec. 11).

Yui's photo nicely captures the "skies of blue and clouds of white" as sung by the iconic Louis Armstrong.

Science status

Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 74 crew aboard the space station this week was:

StemCellEx-IP1 — In an effort that may someday lead to ways to repair damaged organs and tissue, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman studied stem cells under a microscope, observing their production in microgravity as compared to on Earth.

Virtual — In a Roscosmos experiment that looks at how the vestibular system adapts to microgravity, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev traded off wearing a different set of VR (virtual reality) goggles to track their vision. The study could lead to developing additional countermeasures when readjusting to gravity.

Station keeping

The Expedition 74 crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station's systems, including:

JEM DRCS — In a demo that has applications to future Artemis missions to the moon and ultimately to Mars, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui installed and soundproofed the JEM Demonstration of CO2 Removal System in the station's Kibo module. The experimental device traps carbon dioxide from the air and vents it overboard.

JAXA’s HTV-X1 — NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Mike Fincke, together with some help from Zena Cardman and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, continued preparing the cargo ship for its departure in January. Williams worked on loading refuse and no-longer-needed equipment, while Fincke focused on preparing a science rack for its transfer from the space station to inside the HTV-X.

Waste and Hygiene Compartment — Fincke also spent some of his time this week servicing one of the space station's restrooms, replacing orbital plumbing components in the Tranquility node.

Astronaut activity

NASA astronaut Chris Williams is living out his boyhood dream as an Expedition 74 flight engineer.

"For as far back as I can remember, so when I was a little kid, I was always fascinated by exploration and in particular, space," said Williams. "I think it is one of those things that a lot of kids have a fascination with, and I just never grew out of it. It is something that has always been a point of curiosity for me, and being an astronaut felt like the best way to explore space."

Williams discussed his path to flying in space and serving aboard the International Space Station during an in-flight interview on Thursday (Dec. 11), with The Washington Post. You can watch the full discussion in the video above.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Dec. 12), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 74 commander Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman and Chris Williams of NASA; JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui; Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the space-facing port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-28 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module.

There are four cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module, Progress MS-32 (93P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. "Willie" McCool, berthed to the Earth-facing common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Unity node and Japan's HTV-X1 attached to the Earth-facing CBM on the Harmony node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 25 years, 1 month and 10 days.

Now, however, Stanford researchers have used artificial intelligence to steer a free-flying robot aboard the International Space Station (ISS), potentially paving the way for more autonomous space missions in the future.

Working with NASA's cube-shaped Astrobee robot, the Stanford research team demonstrated how a machine-learning system can plan safe routes through the ISS' crowded modules significantly faster than existing methods. The advances address a long-standing hurdle for space robotics — namely, how to move quickly and safely with limited computing power and minimal human input in one of the most extreme engineering environments possible.

Lead researcher Somrita Banerjee, a Stanford Ph.D. candidate, said that the station's maze of equipment and experiments makes motion planning especially challenging, as algorithms that work well for robots on Earth often bog down when run on the older, radiation-hardened computers certified for spaceflight.

To get around those constraints, Banerjee and her colleagues started with a standard optimization approach, described in a new paper presented earlier this month at the International Conference on Space Robotics, which breaks a complex motion-planning problem into many smaller steps. They then trained an AI model on thousands of previously computed paths, so the system could begin each new plan with an informed "warm start" instead of calculating from scratch.

"Using a warm start is like planning a road trip by starting with a route that real people have driven before, rather than drawing a straight line across the map," Banerjee said in a Stanford University statement. "You start with something informed by experience and then optimize from there."

This approach allows for strict safety checks before runs, while cutting actual computation time. In tests on the station, routes generated with the AI warm start were roughly 50% to 60% faster to compute than conventional plans, according to the researchers.

"This is the first time AI has been used to help control a robot on the ISS," Banerjee said. "It shows that robots can move faster and more efficiently without sacrificing safety, which is essential for future missions where humans won't always be able to guide them."

Setting the stage for AI robots on the ISS and beyond

Before the in-orbit trial, the system was first validated at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley using a granite table testbed with a compressed air cushion that allows a robot to glide over it like an air hockey puck, mimicking the microgravity found on the ISS. In orbit, astronauts performed a brief setup and then left Astrobee to be commanded from the ground in what NASA calls a "crew-minimal" experiment.

Over a four-hour session, mission controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston directed Astrobee to fly 18 trajectories, each run twice with and without the AI-generated warm start. Additional safeguards, including virtual obstacles and the ability to halt a run, were used to avoid collisions.

The team says that similar AI-guided planning could eventually allow robots to handle inspections, logistics and science tasks on future missions to the moon, Mars and beyond, freeing astronauts to focus on higher-priority work.

"As robots travel farther from Earth and as missions become more frequent and lower-cost, we won't always be able to teleoperate them from the ground," Banerjee said. "Autonomy with built-in guarantees isn't just helpful; it's essential for the future of space robotics."

What is it?

Airglow is a faint light emitted by Earth's upper atmosphere, produced when molecules emit energy after being excited by cosmic rays or ultraviolet solar radiation. Although far dimmer than auroras, airglow forms a continuous global layer and is always present, both day and night, though it's best visible from space.

Where is it?

This image was taken from low Earth orbit as the ISS flew 260 miles (418 kilometers) above Texas.

Why is it amazing?

Airglow is more than just visually stunning; it can also be used as a diagnostic tool for understanding the structure and dynamics of Earth's upper atmosphere. Airglow can help shed light on atmospheric disturbances, as well as the impacts of space weather coming from solar radiation.

The different colors of airglow are caused by various chemicals found in the atmosphere, so understanding what chemicals are present can help researchers refine atmospheric models used in climate science to get a more accurate picture of how our planet's atmosphere changes over time.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the International Space Station and airglow.

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut are safely back on Earth after spending eight months aboard the International Space Station.

Soyuz MS-27 crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos, along with Jonny Kim of NASA, landed on the cold, snow-flurry-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on Tuesday (Dec. 9). The spacecraft, descending under a parachute and cushioned by braking thrusters, met the ground at 12:03 a.m. EST (0503 GMT or 10:03 a.m. local time).

A Roscosmos recovery team, together with representatives from NASA, were quickly on site to assist the three Soyuz MS-27 crew members out of the capsule and into chairs for brief medical checks.

Ryzhikov and Kim looked to be in fine condition and in good spirits. Zubritsky was taken directly from the Soyuz to an inflatable medical tent.

"Congratulations on one more end of a Soyuz vehicle trip. Expedition 73, all tasks complete," said Ryzhikov after the landing. "The crew are feeling great."

The cosmonauts and astronaut will next be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where the recovery teams are based. Kim will then board a NASA aircraft and be transported to Houston, while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will depart for the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim's journey back to Earth began on Monday (Dec. 8), as they boarded and undocked their Soyuz from the station's Prichal module. Their departure at 8:41 p.m. EST (0141 GMT Tuesday) marked the formal end of Expedition 73 and the beginning of Expedition 74.

"What I think I'm going to remember most is the bond that we shared together, and after having spent eight months in space, I firmly believe that the greatest quality of an astronaut and a human is not technical competence or loyalty or any of the myriad of the things that we like to ascribe to astronauts, it's love," said Kim during a brief change-of-command ceremony on Sunday (Dec. 7). "I firmly believe that love is the greatest thing an astronaut can have for each other and for the people that they work with and for our lovely planet."

"I think that's what we accomplished here — we always gave each other grace and had so much love for each other and for the ground, for everyone that supports us, and I think that is what makes space exploration possible and human," said Kim.

Still aboard the space station as the newly formed Expedition 74 crew are commander Mike Fincke and fellow NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Chris Williams, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev.

Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams arrived in late November, on a Soyuz launch that left Russia's only launch pad capable of supporting flights to the station significantly damaged.

Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim, during their 245 days in low Earth orbit, conducted hundreds of science investigations and technology demonstrations, as well as contributed to the upkeep of the station and oversaw the arrival and departure of uncrewed cargo ships, including the first upgraded spacecraft from Northrop Grumman (Cygnus XL) and JAXA (HTV-X).

Ryzhikov and Zubritsky also conducted two spacewalks to install scientific experiments and relocate a controller for the European Robotic Arm on the exterior of the Russian segment of the station.

Ryzhikov, 51, was the only veteran on the Soyuz MS-27 crew and has now reached a total time in space that only 12 other people in history have exceeded.

"Now [that] I'm commander, my first thing to do is to celebrate something," said Fincke on Sunday (Dec. 7). "Today is the 60th anniversary of Gemini 7, and that was a big deal for the American space program. They were going to go on a really long-duration mission of 14 days. And amongst us here, we have a man who's flown for 600 days in space."

Ryzhikov, who is a colonel in the Russian Air Force, previously served on the Expedition 50 and Expedition 64 crews in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

Zubritsky, 33, was the 630th person to fly into Earth orbit, according to the Registry of Space Travelers maintained by the Association of Space Explorers. Kim, 41, who inspired memes given his prior careers as a U.S. Navy SEAL and medical doctor, was the 631st person to orbit Earth. (Ryzhikov became number 548 when he launched on his first flight in 2016.)

Soyuz MS-27 was Russia's 73rd spacecraft in its class to launch for the station since 2000 and the 156th Soyuz to fly since 1967.

Three astronauts will come back to Earth early Tuesday morning (Dec. 9), and you can watch their homecoming live.

NASA's Jonny Kim and Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of the Russian space agency Roscosmos left the International Space Station (ISS) in a Soyuz spacecraft on Monday (Dec. 8) at 8:41 p.m. EST (0141 GMT on Dec. 9). They're scheduled to touch down about 3.5 hours later, at 12:03 a.m. EST (0503 GMT).

You can watch the action live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency.

The reentry and landing livestream will begin today at 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 GMT).

If all goes to plan, the Soyuz carrying Kim and his cosmonaut colleagues will land Tuesday (Dec. 9) at 12:03 a.m. EST (0503 GMT) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, near the city of Dzhezkazgan.

Kim, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky arrived at the ISS on April 8. Their 245-day mission is the first spaceflight for Kim and Zubritsky and the third for Ryzhikov, the commander of the station's Expedition 73 mission.

By the time they touch down on Tuesday morning, the trio will have orbited Earth 3,920 times together and traveled nearly 104 million miles (167 million kilometers), according to a NASA statement.

After Kim, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky departed the ISS, there were seven people left on board the orbiting lab — Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke and Chris Williams; and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.

Williams, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev are new arrivals, reaching the station on Thanksgiving Day. Their launch was more eventful than Roscosmos officials had planned; shortly after their Soyuz rocket lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the pad's service platform crashed into the flame trench.

It's unclear how long it will take to repair that pad, which is currently the only one capable of launching Russian astronaut and cargo missions to the ISS.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10 p.m. ET on Dec. 8 with news of the Soyuz's successful departure from the ISS.

Orbital observation

JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui is fond of photographing his home nation of Japan from his vantage point aboard the International Space Station. Thursday (Dec. 4) was no different.

"Last night, I went to bed early and woke up once in the middle of the night to film a video of the Japanese archipelago," Yui posted to social media. "Even from space, it looked very cold."

"There were many areas where it seemed to be snowing or places where it had snowed afterward, and while it looked beautiful from space, I became a little worried when I thought about all of you," he wrote.

In the foreground are Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship, the S.S. William C. "Willie" McCool (at right) and the newly docked Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft.

Science status

Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 73 crew aboard the space station this week was:

CIPHER — Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim of NASA collected samples of Cardman's blood, tested her cognition and measured her exercise, all as activities under the CIPHER human research study tracking astronauts' health before, during and after a spaceflight. Afterward, Cardman used a centrifuge to prepare them for being placed inside a science freezer for future analysis.

Astrobee — Scientists on Earth, working with astronauts on the space station like Kim, assessed robotic free-flying assistants called "Astrobee" to enable astronauts to conduct more research.

Station keeping

The Expedition 73 crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station's systems, including:

New Crew Member Orientation — Having just arrived at the space station the week before, NASA astronaut Chris Williams attended an orientation session, of sorts, as fellow NASA astronaut Mike Fincke and Kimiya Yui of JAXA took turns bringing Williams up to speed about life on orbit. Fincke and Yui familiarized Williams with space station hardware, operations and systems.

'Closet' inventory — Oleg Platonov, a flight engineer with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, spent the first part of his shift documenting the location and amount of clothing and towels remaining in the Russian segment of the space station.

Zero Boil-Off Tank Noncondensables — Flight Engineer Mike Fincke changed out the cameras inside a microgravity science glovebox to photograph how cryogenic fluids behave in microgravity to improve the design of spacecraft fuel tanks.

Astronaut activity

As part of their work maintaining the systems aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Jonny Kim and Chris Williams spent this week cleaning and inspecting the European Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) after its installation in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus laboratory.

According to NASA, the E4D is being tested for its ability to provide bicycling, rowing and resistance exercises to protect crew members' muscles, bones and heart health in microgravity.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Dec. 5), there are 10 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikaev and Alexey Zubritsky of Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Jonny Kim and Chris Williams and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, all flight engineers.

There are three docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the space-facing port of the Harmony module, Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node and Soyuz MS-28 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module.

There are four cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module, Progress MS-32 (93P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. "Willie" McCool, berthed to the Earth-facing common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Unity node and Japan's HTV-X1 attached to the Earth-facing CBM on the Harmony node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 25 years, 1 month and 3 days.

A Russian spaceflyer was pulled from SpaceX's next astronaut mission for violating U.S. national security regulations, according to a media report.

Oleg Artemyev, of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, had been manifested on SpaceX's Crew 12, a four-person mission scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station (ISS) as early as February.

Fellow cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev recently took his place, a "decision made in connection with Oleg Artemyev’s transfer to another job," Roscosmos officials said today (Dec. 2) in a statement (in Russian; translation by Google). But that's not the whole story, according to the Russian investigative site The Insider.

This morning, The Insider reported that Artemyev, 54, was apparently removed from Crew 12 for violations of ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), a U.S. law that seeks to safeguard national security by restricting the dissemination of sensitive information and technology.

"The cosmonaut allegedly photographed SpaceX documentation and then 'used his phone' to export classified information," The Insider wrote (in Russian; translation by Google), citing the work of launch analyst Gregory Trishkin.

"My contacts confirm that a violation occurred and an interdepartmental investigation has been launched," Trishkin told The Insider. "Removing someone from a mission two and a half months before the mission without a clear explanation is more of an indirect sign, but it's indicative. It's very difficult to imagine a situation in which an experienced cosmonaut could inadvertently commit such a gross violation."

The Insider also cited a Sunday (Dec. 1) report by a Russian-spaceflight channel on Telegram called "Yura, Forgive Me!" According to that report, the violations occurred last week, when Artemyev was training at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. He allegedly photographed SpaceX engines and other sensitive tech with his phone.

Crew 12 is the 12th operational astronaut mission that SpaceX will fly to the ISS under a contract with NASA. Space.com reached out to SpaceX and NASA for comment about the Artemyev situation but has not yet heard back.

Artemyev has spent a total of 560 days in space across three long-duration missions to the ISS, which launched in March 2014, March 2018 and March 2022.

That last flight lifted off just a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, kicking off a war that continues to this day. In July 2022, Roscosmos posted photos of Artemyev and two of his cosmonaut colleagues on the ISS holding the flags of two Russian-backed separatist territories in Ukraine. NASA and the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) condemned the photo op, stressing that the orbiting lab should not be used as a platform for wartime propaganda.

Crew 12 is scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 15. It will send Fedyaev, ESA's Sophie Adenot and two as-yet-unnamed astronauts to the ISS for a roughly six-month stay.

All eight docking ports for spacecraft on the current configuration of the International Space Station (ISS) are fully occupied for the first time in the complex's history, NASA officials said in a statement on Monday (Dec. 1). (Construction of the ISS began in 1998, but the complex didn't have that many ports in the beginning.)

The ISS is so full up that controllers had to temporarily move aside a robotic spacecraft to make room for an astronaut taxi last week. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos arrived aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, which docked at the Russian Rassvet module on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28), for an expected eight-month mission.

Before the Soyuz crew got there, Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston used the ISS' robotic Canadarm2 to move Northrop Grumman's Cygnus-23 cargo spacecraft, "to provide appropriate clearance" for the incoming crewed spacecraft, NASA officials stated. Cygnus-23 was then reinstalled at the Earth-facing port of the station's Unity module. (That's spacecraft No. 2 of eight, for those of you keeping track.)

There's another Soyuz vehicle at the ISS as well — Soyuz MS-27, which is installed at the Russian Prichal module. But its orbital stay is coming to and end: Soyuz MS-27 is scheduled to depart the ISS with NASA's Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky on Dec. 8, for a landing soon thereafter in Kazakhstan.

The remaining five spacecraft at the ISS are the Russian Progress-92 and Progress-93 robotic cargo spacecraft, which reside at the Russian Poisk and Zvezda modules, respectively; the Japanese HTV-X1 cargo craft, berthed at the nadir port of the station's Harmony Node 2; and two SpaceX Dragon capsules.

These Dragons are at the two other ports on Harmony used for visiting spacecraft. One is the Commercial Resupply Services-33 (CRS-33) robotic cargo capsule, at the Harmony Node 2 forward port. The other is the Crew-11 Dragon, on Harmony's space-facing port. (Harmony in fact has six ports, but three serve as attachments to the Destiny, Columbus and Kibo ISS modules.)

As its name makes clear, Crew-11 is an astronaut mission. Its crewmembers make up the remainder of the Expedition 73 long-duration astronauts on the ISS: NASA's Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Kimiya Yui from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Oleg Platonov from Roscosmos. The quartet will return to Earth sometime in 2026.

What is it?

Cygnus XL is Northrop Grumman's largest cargo spacecraft to date. The spacecraft was reconfigured to have increased payload capacity, with a greater pressurized cargo volume and structural upgrades for heavier payloads, making it a vital asset for supporting long-duration missions aboard the ISS.

Since 2013, Cygnus missions have played a critical role in delivering experiments, spare parts, and daily necessities to astronauts aboard the ISS. These cargo missions are part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, which partners with private companies to maintain the logistics pipeline needed for humans to continuously live on the space station.

Where is it?

This image was taken from the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.

Why is it amazing?

As the ISS enters its later years of operation and plans accelerate for commercial space stations in the 2030s, the demand for larger and more efficient cargo vehicles continues to grow. With the successful docking and unloading of the 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) of cargo from this recent mission, the Cygnus XL spacecraft has illustrated how space operations can continue forward.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about Northrop Grumman and the International Space Station.

On Thursday (Nov. 27), Russia's Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module with three new crew members for the space station.

"In this photo, too, the two spacecraft [Soyuz MS-28 and MS-27] are parked side by side so amicably, aren't they? With 10 crew members on the ISS during the handover period, it's quite lively," wrote flight engineer Kimiya Yui on social media from the International Space Station (ISS).

Soyuz MS-28 crewmates NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev will spend the next eight months on board.

Science status

Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 73 crew aboard the space station this week was:

Ultrasound 2 — Doctors on Earth watched live as Zena Cardman used a portable ultrasound to scan Jonny Kim's chest in an effort to better understand how his heart is adapting to living in space.

Droplet — In an effort to create better optical materials and develop better ways to remove pollution, Mike Fincke used a fluorescence microscope to sample hardware so scientists could see how particles behave inside fluids.

Station keeping

The Expedition 73 crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station's systems, including:

Soyuz MS-27 — Working inside his soon-to-be ride home, Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov checked the electronics and communications systems aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft and then continued loading cargo inside for his, Alexey Zubritsky and Jonny Kim's return to Earth.

Astronaut activity

To prepare for the arrival of Soyuz MS-28 with three new crewmates, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship, the S.S. William C. "Willie" McCool, needed to be unberthed and held at a distance by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm so as to give ample room for the docking.

Here, Expedition 73 flight engineer Zena Cardman of NASA takes a break from closing the hatch to the Cygnus capsule to pose for a photo while holding up a couple of equipment covers as if they were a pair of goggles.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Nov. 28), there are 10 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Jonny Kim and Chris Williams of NASA and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, all flight engineers.

There are three docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the space-facing port of the Harmony module, Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node and Soyuz MS-28 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module.

There are four cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module, Progress MS-32 (93P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. "Willie" McCool, temporarily at the end to the Canadarm2 but soon to be berthed again to the Earth-facing common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Unity node and Japan's HTV-X1 attached to the Earth-facing CBM on the Harmony node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 25 years and 26 days.

The maintenance cabin (also referred to as a service platform) located in the flame trench at the Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 31/6 in Kazakhstan reportedly collapsed in the wake of the Soyuz MS-28 crew launching to the space station atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket. The platform is needed in the preparation of boosters launching from the pad.

"The launch site was inspected, as is done every time after a rocket launch. Damage to a number of launch pad elements was detected," read a statement released by Roscosmos late on Thursday. "Such damage may appear after launch, so an inspection like this is mandatory in international practice."

"The condition of the launch complex is currently being assessed," the statement said. "All the necessary spare parts are available for restoration, and the damage will be repaired in the near future."

Site 31/6 has been used exclusively for Russian human and cargo flights to the International Space Station since 2020, after Site 1 was retired due a lack of funds for upgrades. Also known as "Gagarin's Start," Site 1 hosted the world's first human spaceflight by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Site 31/6 was first used in January 1961 and has supported more than 400 launches since.

"There is some possibility that duplicate hardware could be borrowed from the mothballed Site 1 in Baikonur or from similar facilities at other launch sites," wrote journalist Anatoly Zak on his Russian Space Web site. "According to preliminary estimates, repairs of the service platform, known as 8U0216, could take up to two years."

It is unclear if another Russian launch pad could support flights to the space station. Roscosmos had scheduled an uncrewed Progress resupply mission in December.

The Soyuz MS-28 crew of Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams are safe aboard the space station, where they are expected to stay for the next eight months.

What is it?

As a Korean-American astronaut — and one of NASA's most accomplished, with careers as a Navy SEAL, Harvard-trained physician and now spaceflyer — Jonny Kim often speaks about honoring his heritage.

Sharing Korean cuisine in orbit isn't just a treat; it's a symbol of representation aboard an international laboratory where culture and science blend daily. These moments also highlight the importance of food in astronaut well-being. Familiar flavors help reduce stress, combat homesickness and create a sense of normalcy during months-long missions.

Where is it?

This image was taken aboard the ISS in low Earth orbit.

Why is it amazing?

While NASA's research into space nutrition focuses on health, caloric needs and long-duration mission planning, meals like Kim's remind us that food is also about humanity. Each dish carries memories, identity and comfort, qualities that matter just as much 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth as they do at home.

In showcasing Korean and American foods side by side, Kim shows the core spirit of the ISS: many cultures, working — and sharing meals — together in orbit.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about space food and the International Space Station.

Holiday travel reached new heights today (Nov. 27), as an American astronaut left home for Thanksgiving dinner — in Earth orbit.

Chris Williams of NASA, together with his Soyuz MS-28 crewmates Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, both cosmonauts with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, lifted off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, beginning a planned eight-month expedition with a coincidental but well-timed celebration.

"The kid who played basketball in the driveway with his cousins before Thanksgiving dinner is now a flight engineer on the three-man crew for Expedition 74," wrote Juan Williams, a civil rights historian and Chris' uncle, in a recent column for The Hill newspaper. "Chris's incredible trip to space is rooted in incredible family trips. His grandmother took a voyage to a new world in 1958. She traveled with three children on a freighter boat carrying bananas from Panama to Brooklyn, New York."

"This Thanksgiving, I am grateful to live in a country where the grandson of Panamanian immigrants can represent America in the heavens, on a mission of peace and science," wrote the elder Williams.

Despite the more exotic destination, Chris Williams' trip to the space station took far less time than his family's sea voyage, and was shorter than some of the interstate road trips expected across the country today. Having lifted off at 4:27 a.m. EST (0927 GMT or 2:27 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, he, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev docked to the Rassvet module three hours later at 6:34 a.m. EST (1234 GMT).

Flying under the call sign "Gyrfalcon" — a bird of prey also depicted on their mission patch — the Soyuz MS-28 crew took to the skies atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket decorated with the colorful drawings of pediatric cancer patients and the portraits of the first astronaut and cosmonauts to live aboard the ISS 25 years ago.

When they reached orbit, two small crocheted dolls signaled they were now in the weightless environment of outer space. Their zero-g indicators were a ginger cat named "Gizmo" that was gifted by one of the cosmonaut's families and a knitted cosmonaut made by students attending school in Gagarin, Russia (their town named after the first human in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin).

Awaiting their arrival at the space station were the seven members of Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineers Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui will greet Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams after the hatches are opened at about 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT) and "sit down" for a feast.

"This is my second Thanksgiving in space, so I highly recommend it," said Fincke in a recorded video released by NASA ahead of the holiday. "This time it is going to be with a new Soyuz crew and we're getting food ready, so we have the traditions like turkey [and] there is some cranberry sauce here."

The food lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston prepared a special "Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bag" (BOB) that arrived with a cargo delivery in September. "We have got everything here from turkey and the traditional things that Mike mentioned, some mashed potatoes, to crab meat, salmon and we even have some lobster, which is amazing!" said Cardman.

After the holiday and the return to Earth by Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim aboard Soyuz MS-27 in early December, Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams, together with Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will form the new Expedition 74 crew. During their planned stay, the Soyuz MS-28 trio will help carry out hundreds of science experiments and technology demonstrations, as well as conduct possible spacewalks and perform station maintenance as needed.

Williams will help install and test the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D), a modular workout system for long-duration missions that combines bicycling, rowing and resistive capabilities together with rope pulling and climbing. He will also conduct studies to improve cryogenic fuel efficiency and grow semiconductor crystals, as well as assist NASA in developing revised re-entry safety protocols to protect crew members during future missions.

Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev will be the first cosmonauts to be aided by GigaChat, an artificial intelligence (AI) bot that through both voice and tablet inputs will help make decisions about the operation of the Russian segment of the space station.

Soyuz MS-28 is the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud-Sverchkov, who logged 185 days in space as a flight engineer on the station's Expedition 63/64 crew in 2021. Kud-Sverchkov, 42, worked as a rocket engineer for RSC Energia before being selected as a cosmonaut in 2010.

Mikaev, 39, was flying as a military pilot in the Russian Air Force when he was recruited for spaceflight training in 2018.

Williams, 42, has a doctorate in physics, studied supernovae using the Very Large Array radio telescope and completed residency training at Harvard that later led to him developing new image guidance techniques for cancer treatment. He joined NASA in 2021 and is the second member of his class ("The Flies") to fly into space.

Although they are not the first crew to celebrate Thanksgiving in space, the Soyuz MS-28 trio are the first to launch and dock on the holiday day.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Nov. 27, 2025 to add information about the Soyuz docking to the International Space Station.

There's some spaceflight action on tap on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27), but you'll have to get up pretty early to catch it.

A Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch from the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thanksgiving at 4:27 a.m. EST (0927 GMT; 2:27 p.m. local time), sending NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev toward the International Space Station (ISS).

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency's YouTube. Coverage will start at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 GMT).

If all goes according to plan, the trio's Soyuz spacecraft will reach the ISS a little over three hours after launch, docking with the orbiting outpost's Rassvet module at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT). NASA will cover that milestone as well, beginning at 6:45 a.m. EST (1145 GMT).

The hatches between the Soyuz and the ISS are expected to open around 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT). You can watch that activity, and the welcome ceremony that will follow it, beginning at 9:50 a.m. EST (1450 GMT).

The Thanksgiving launch will kick off the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov has been to orbit once before, living on the ISS from October 2020 to April 2021.

The trio will spend about eight months aboard the station as members of the orbiting outpost's Expedition 73 and Expedition 74 missions.

"During his stay aboard station, Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth," NASA officials wrote in a statement.

"He will help install and test a new modular workout system for long-duration missions, support experiments to improve cryogenic fuel efficiency and grow semiconductor crystals in space, and assist NASA in designing new re-entry safety protocols to protect crews during future missions," they added.

The Thanksgiving liftoff will be the second launch in three days headed for a crewed outpost in low Earth orbit. On Monday night (Nov. 24), China launched an uncrewed Shenzhou capsule, which will be the ride home for the three astronauts currently living on the Tiangong space station. That trio was without a lifeboat for 10 days; their own vehicle took home the previous Shenzhou astronauts, whose spacecraft was damaged by a space-debris strike.

NASA astronauts on the International Space Station are planning to have Thanksgiving dinner with some newly arrived guests, just like many people in the United States.

In a new video, members of the Expedition 73 crew shared their plans for Thanksgiving, which likely includes a special arrival at the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will launch on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26) on the Soyuz MS-28 mission and arrive in time for dinner, if all goes to plan.

The launch is scheduled for 4:27 a.m. EST (0927 GMT or 2:27 p.m. local time in Baikonur, Kazakhstan), and you'll be able to watch it live at Space.com. The crew are scheduled to orbit Earth twice before docking with the ISS Russian Rassvet module at 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT), only about three hours after liftoff.

Four-time NASA spaceflyer Mike Fincke, celebrating his second U.S. Thanksgiving in space after ISS Expedition 18 (which ran from October 2008 to April 2009), said in the video that the ISS crew is already getting food ready for the new arrivals. He showed off turkey and cranberry sauce in front of the camera facing the crew in the crowded Destiny module, where U.S. research primarily takes place.

"This cranberry sauce is actually Russian cranberry, so it's kind of neat to have that up here because that's one of my favorite parts," Fincke said, carefully extracting packets from a plastic bag while the astronauts floated between experiments and laptops attached to the module's walls. "I'm going to miss my family, of course, but I'm up here with my space family … We're looking forward to the food up here, and the company."

"Food is a really important part of everyday life up here, and staying happy and healthy," added NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, who is on her first spaceflight. "We share a lot of meals, and so this one is just going to be extra special. Our ground teams, and the food lab at NASA, have taken such great care of us that we have a very special food holiday bag here. We’ve got everything from turkey and the traditional things that Mike mentioned [to] some mashed potatoes, to crab meat, salmon. We've even got some lobster, which is amazing."

Aside from the food, Korean-American NASA astronaut Jonny Kim (also on his first mission) said he is looking forward to Thanksgiving as a moment "to kind of pause, and slow down, and reflect on our lives — the people we cherish in our lives, and all the support we've had on this journey."

Two-time spaceflyer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said that there is no Thanksgiving in his home country. But Yui said he will happily celebrate the holiday on Thursday, as is tradition — ISS spaceflyers mark the customs of their international crewmates. And he enjoys how Thanksgiving conveys "respect, and also appreciation to others," which he called "a very good tradition."

Also on the ISS are Alexey Zubritsky, Oleg Platonov and Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos. Over the decades of ISS operations, the U.S. and Russian sides of the space station have traditionally had separate scheduling and public relations events. That said, the crews often come together for big tasks in space and share meals, so it is possible the Russians will celebrate Thanksgiving alongside the Americans.

Expedition 73 began in April and is anticipated to complete wrap up later this year; NASA has not yet shared when the U.S.-Japanese crew will return, but it will be sometime after the new arrivals on Soyuz settle into their duties on the orbiting complex.

Mark Kelly, who has represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate since 2020, is one of six Democratic lawmakers who participated in a 90-second video reminding members of the military and intelligence communities not to obey illegal orders.

That video drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who deemed it traitorous.

"SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" Trump said in a Nov. 20 post on Truth Social, the social media site he owns. (Capitalization his.)

"THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW, NOT ROAMING THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT WHAT THEY SAID WAS OK. IT WASN'T, AND NEVER WILL BE! IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!" he added in a Nov. 22 post.

This may not be an idle threat. On Monday (Nov. 24), the Pentagon announced that it's investigating Kelly, a former fighter pilot and captain in the U.S. Navy who flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm.

"The Department of War has received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.)," Pentagon officials said Monday via X, the social media site owned by billionaire SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. (In September, Trump issued an executive order directing military leaders to use the term "Department of War," but "Department of Defense" remains the organization's legal name.)

"In accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 688, and other applicable regulations, a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures," the Monday X post continues. "This matter will be handled in compliance with military law, ensuring due process and impartiality. Further official comments will be limited, to preserve the integrity of the proceedings."

Kelly, meanwhile, defended himself on social media, referencing his military and astronaut experience:

Defenders of Kelly and the other five people who spoke in the video — Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris DeLuzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan — argue that they're simply urging adherence to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That code, after all, states that military personnel are duty-bound to disobey illegal orders.

"Sedition is trying to overthrow the government with force or violence," Eric Carpenter, a professor at Florida International University College of Law, told FactCheck.org. "In the video, the elected officials are just telling service members to follow the law. They are not telling service members to overthrow the government."

Kelly — who flew on four space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011 and is the twin brother of former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly — is not backing down.

"If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won't work," he said via X on Monday. "I've given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution."

The institute would coordinate national research on whichever private space stations will pick up the baton after the International Space Station (ISS) retires in 2030. But that outcome requires Congress' approval of the newly proposed Space RACE (Research And Continuing Exploration) Act.

The senatorial group, which includes former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly (D-AZ), argue that the new institute is needed to reduce opportunities for China's Tiangong space station to pick up multinational research after the ISS retires. And it's not the first time Congress has brought this up; hearings under the Biden administration pointed to the risk of the U.S. losing research dollars if Tiangong is the only orbital facility available when ISS retires.

"From my time on the International Space Station, I saw how the research our astronauts conduct drives innovation here on Earth and strengthens America's long-term competitiveness," Kelly, who visited the station four times between 2001 and 2011 during the space shuttle program, said in a statement Wednesday (Nov. 19). "As China and other countries expand their space programs, the United States can't afford to lose ground."

"It is critical for America to have every tool and competitive advantage at our disposal to launch into the next space race," added Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in the same statement. Other senators named on the legislation are John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM).

The Chinese space program stands apart from NASA's activities; the U.S. and China are forbidden from bilateral cooperation (except activities expressly approved by Congress ahead of time) under 2011 legislation known as the Wolf Amendment. In recent years, Congressional hearings have stated that China is stepping up cyberattacks and satellite surveillance. China, meanwhile, has mounted several robotic moon missions and a Mars mission in recent years, and both China and NASA are aiming to land astronauts on the moon again before 2030, via different international consortiums.

NASA, however, is facing a 24% budget cut, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion, in fiscal 2026 if the White House's proposal is enacted by Congress. Much of that cut would come from the agency's science program, which would see its funding drop by 47%. Critics have said that slashing science could make the U.S. vulnerable to losing relevance in space, while the Trump administration maintains that these measures are needed to focus exploration on crewed efforts to the moon and Mars.

In the words of the senators' statement, the Space RACE act would:

• "Create a National Institute for Space Research, a federally controlled but independently operated entity designed to coordinate and advance U.S. microgravity research in LEO [low Earth orbit] using next-generation space platforms after the retirement of the ISS;
• Support public-private partnerships and economic development by bridging government and commercial sector interests;
• And bolster America's geopolitical influence, strategic positioning, and leadership in the emerging space economy around the world."

The statement cites a recent SpaceNews report saying that China aims to ramp up demand for services at Tiangong through sending up new modules. China has also been reported to be seeking more international collaborations in orbit, and to attract foreign astronauts through training.

"China's ability to offer space-based partnerships to other nations allows it to build soft power and potentially shift international norms in space governance and tech standards," the senators state. Building the institute would counteract that, they argue, through allowing the U.S. to "support small businesses, and lower barriers to entry into space research and development."

Chinese space officials labeled the Nov. 5 wave-off of the crew's return to Earth as the first successful implementation of an "alternative return procedure" in the history of the nation's space station program. The trio of taikonauts did return to Earth, in a fresh but "borrowed" Shenzhou 21 spacecraft on Nov. 14. But doing so left the three-person Shenzhou 21 crew with a damaged and docked vehicle that has been deemed unsafe for reentry.

And now, technicians are readying the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft and its rocket for flight in a reportedly uncrewed mode to Tiangong. That mission was originally scheduled to fly, with astronauts, in 2026.

Wake-up call

This incident is a wake-up call, say advocates of a space rescue capability — and also a call for an organization to shape that capacity.

That competence is needed not only for governmental spaceflight, but especially to support the growing private-sector spaceflight business, said Jan Osburg, a senior engineer for the RAND Corporation's engineering and applied sciences department in Pittsburgh. RAND is a global policy think tank.

"Government programs typically have more time and funding for contingency procedures of their own, compared to private missions," Osburg told Space.com. "Also, government missions typically go to space stations," he said, which can serve as "safe havens."

One enabler for space rescue would be compatible docking systems — or ways to transfer spacefarers from a vessel in distress to another vehicle, said Osburg.

Also required are compatible communications systems, as well as established rescue coordination procedures and responsibilities — similar to what has evolved in the maritime world over the last few decades, Osburg said.

Space standards

The question is, What standards has China used for its Shenzhou spacecraft and the country's space station docking system?

James Lewis is associate chief (acting) and NASA's International Docking System Standard (IDSS) Committee Chair in the structural engineering division at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"This is an excellent question. Since we are precluded by U.S. law from even talking to China, we do not have a clear answer if they adhere to or meet-the-intent of the IDSS Interface Definition Document (IDD)," Lewis told Space.com.

Lewis said understanding what's in play on the Chinese side "is essentially what we can pull from the internet, and the Russians have been silent to us about their involvement with China on this subject."

Compatibility

What is believed, Lewis added, is that China’s design is based on the Russian Androgynous Peripheral Attachment System (APAS) docking system design, which is also the basis for an International Docking System Standard.

"But we have no idea if it is truly compatible," Lewis said.

"I can imagine that China and Russia have retained compatibility, since I expect they are planning future in-space collaboration," Lewis observed. "If China's design is virtually an identical specification to the APAS, then there is a high likelihood it is interoperable with other IDSS-derived docking systems for soft capture and structural latching, but they would not be for power/data or fluid transfer, which are not currently specified in the IDSS IDD."

Good news

The good news here is that China noticed that the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft had been damaged, said Grant Cates, senior project leader in launch operations for the Space Safety Institute at The Aerospace Corporation.

Cates said that means China is inspecting its spacecraft before using them to return astronauts from Tiangong.

"One can imagine if they didn't notice and their crew returned in an unsafe spacecraft," Cates said, "that could have led to a very bad outcome."

Brian Weeden, director of civil and commercial policy at the Center for Space Policy and Strategy for The Aerospace Corporation, underscored the changing environment of space utilization.

"We're now in an era where there's multiple governments, multiple companies involved in space. So the shift is not just one organization needing to think about space rescue for their own needs," Weeden told Space.com. "Rather, how does the global community think about space rescue that is more integrated across different missions, across different agencies, across different countries? That is a much harder problem because of the need to communicate and interact."

Space debris: A hit-and-miss affair

Marlon Sorge is technical fellow and executive director of the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS).

To date, there hasn't been too much detail on China's recent run-in with orbital debris, Sorge said. "It's always a good reminder that there is debris up there and we need to be thinking about this issue," he observed, pointing to the considerable amount of effort NASA has put into shielding the International Space Station from space debris hits.

"In this case, if they were worried about an impact on part of their return vehicle, I could understand being cautious … that can have some pretty serious consequences," said Sorge.

Launch-on-need system

Cates noted that China has said in the past that it has a 10-day launch-on-need system. "If they need to do a rescue, we will see them implement that," he said. But to what degree the nation's astronauts are in any distress mode is unknown.

However, Cates said that this incident with China's human spaceflight program is a reminder that "there needs to be movement in the direction of having compatible systems. And it's not just the docking systems but also spacesuits and communications capabilities."

While there's general agreement that there's a need, there's lack of will at this point to push forward on space rescue, Cates said, "to create the systems and put them in place to enable rescues in the future."

For example, take the situation of both crewed space stations now in operation, the ISS and Tiangong. They are in different orbits and different inclinations. "We probably don't have enough sufficient propellant to make the leap from one station to the other," said Cates.

Given the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and provisions regarding the rescue of astronauts, "we're not there yet. There's a long way to go," Cates concluded.

Researchers exposed moss spores to the harsh environment of space for nine months recently, and the results were surprising, a new study reports.

"Most living organisms, including humans, cannot survive even briefly in the vacuum of space," study lead author Tomomichi Fujita, of Hokkaido University in Japan, said in a statement. "However, the moss spores retained their vitality after nine months of direct exposure. This provides striking evidence that the life that has evolved on Earth possesses, at the cellular level, intrinsic mechanisms to endure the conditions of space."

Mosses are some of the oldest plants on Earth. They evolved more than 400 million years ago and lack some of the signature traits of more "advanced" flora — for instance, they don't have a vascular system that transports water and nutrients throughout their bodies. But many mosses are quite hardy, thriving in extreme environments around the world from the Arctic tundra to the sands of the Sahara.

Fujita and his team wanted to see if that resilience extends beyond Earth. So, they packed some spores of a widespread species known as "spreading earthmoss" aboard Northrop Grumman's 17th Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2022.

The scientists selected spores — or, more specifically, sporophytes, the reproductive structures that produce spores — after conducting a few experiments here on Earth. Those experiments involved exposing the sporophytes, as well as juvenile moss and moss stem cells, to space-like conditions in the lab — a vacuum environment, microgravity, high levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and large temperature swings.

The researchers determined that UV radiation was the single biggest stressor for the moss, and that the sporophytes handled it — and the other hardships — much better than the juvenile moss and moss stem cells did.

So, they sent some sporophytes to the ISS. Astronauts affixed the samples to the station's exterior, where they remained for 283 days before coming back to Earth on a Dragon cargo capsule in January 2023. (Cygnus wasn't designed to survive the trip back to Earth, but Dragon crew and cargo craft are reusable.)

Fujita and his colleagues were in for a surprise when they took a look at the space-flown spores.

"We expected almost zero survival, but the result was the opposite: Most of the spores survived," he said. "We were genuinely astonished by the extraordinary durability of these tiny plant cells."

More than 80% of the sporophytes were still alive, in fact, and 89% of those survivors were able to germinate back in the lab. Spaceflight caused a 20% reduction in chlorophyll a, the main pigment involved in photosynthesis, but the spores seemed to be healthy despite that drop, the team found.

Indeed, the sporophytes likely could have survived much longer in the final frontier — 5,600 days or so, according to a mathematical model the researchers developed.

"This study demonstrates the astonishing resilience of life that originated on Earth," Fujita said. (We've gotten previous peeks at this resilience, which is displayed by a variety of organisms, such as bacteria and tardigrades.)

The new research could also have implications for journeys beyond our home planet, Fujita added.

"Ultimately, we hope this work opens a new frontier toward constructing ecosystems in extraterrestrial environments such as the moon and Mars," he said. "I hope that our moss research will serve as a starting point."

The new study was published Thursday (Nov. 20) in the journal iScience.

The International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 73 crew took several pictures of comets Lemmon (C/2025 A6) and SWAN (C/2025 R2) in recent weeks that were just posted to NASA's website and social media pages after the end of the long government shutdown.

"Comets Lemmon and SWAN soar millions of miles away from Earth, beaming with auroras and airglow, in these celestial images from the orbital outpost captured in October," NASA officials wrote on the ISS X feed on Wednesday (Nov. 18).

Comets are small bodies made of ice and dust; when they approach our sun, radiation pressure and heat give them spectacular tails. Auroras are light shows that happen when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, while airglow is luminescence caused by chemical reactions high in the atmosphere.

NASA didn't say who on the crew took the photos, but they look very similar to images taken by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui. Yui, unlike the NASA crew, was able to keep posting on social media channel X during the shutdown. (The NASA astronauts were allowed to perform only essential duties during the shutdown, such as ISS science and maintenance.)

Yui provided descriptions of his photos as well. "You can … distinguish between the two types of tails: ion and dust," Yui wrote (in Japanese; translation by xAI's Grok tool) on Oct. 20 of a Lemmon image with the comet backdropped by a starry, bluish-purple sky. (NASA posted a similar image from that same day on its website.)

More images came quickly. "After a busy day comes to an end, I've been continuing to take photos to soothe my fatigue. Lately, my source of healing has been Lemmon-chan, I suppose?" Yui posted on X with a series of images on Oct. 22. "I find myself thinking things like, 'What kind of expression will you show me today, I wonder?' and heading toward the window, and that moment feels as enjoyable as heading out on a date."

Yui sent out another image series on Oct. 21, noting changes in Lemmon's brightness and tail — as well as changes in Earth's atmosphere. Both the Oct. 21 and Oct. 22 photo sets on Yui's feed are similar to an Oct. 23 image on NASA's website.

Then, on Oct. 24, Yui found Lemmon appearing to melt into a spectacular aurora of green and yellow light, which looks like an entry on NASA's image website. Lemmon was 57.2 million miles (92.1 million kilometers) from Earth and the ISS was above Fargo, North Dakota when the image was taken.

"It was just like a mermaid swimming through a sea of auroras," Yui said of Lemmon. He added the show was "too magnificent" to use the familiar "chan" honorific when referring to Lemmon, so he chose to adopt the more formal "Lemmon-san."

That same day, Yui pivoted his attention to what NASA identifies as Comet SWAN, which was about 27.2 million miles (43.8 million km) from Earth at the time. "As the comet approaches the sun, the opportunities to photograph it from the ISS have become very short," Yui noted of the image, which shows SWAN floating above green and yellow bands of airglow off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

It's rare to have two bright comets visible in the sky at roughly the same time, and especially rare for them to peak in brightness so close to each other: Lemmon and SWAN both were at their brightest around Oct. 20 and Oct. 21.

Lemmon was discovered in January by University of Arizona astronomer David Carson Fuls in images from the Mount Lemmon Survey, using the university's eponymous telescope near Tucson. SWAN was found in September by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Vladimir Bezugly using images from the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument on the European Space Agency's space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

Orbital observation

It's a morning ritual for millions, but isn't so straightforward without the benefit of the pull of gravity.

"In space, we’re weightless, but not massless. So how do we measure our mass?" NASA astronaut Johnny Kim, a flight engineer on the space station's Expedition 73 crew, wrote in a social media post on Thursday (Nov. 20).

In short, it takes specialized equipment like Russia's Body Mass Measurement Device. They all, however, rely on Newton’s Second Law: F = ma.

"Apply a known force, measure the resulting acceleration, and you can calculate mass from the relationship between the two," Kim wrote.

Science status

Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 73 crew aboard the space station this week was:

DROPLET — Flight engineer Mike Fincke of NASA continued an experiment observing how particles attach to liquid droplets and rearrange in the weightlessness of space by installing samples inside a fluorescence microscope to be observed by scientists on Earth.

Ultrasound 3 — Zena Cardman, Fincke's fellow NASA flight engineer, checked out the operations of the new scanning device, which can be used for crew heart and vein scans, as well as internal imaging of bones, organs and tissues.

Station keeping

The Expedition 73 crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station's systems, including:

Progress MS-32 (93P) — On Wednesday (Nov. 19), the Russian cargo capsule fired its engine for 14 minutes and 7 seconds while still docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, raising the altitude of the space station by 1 mile at apogee and 2.3 miles at perigee (1.6 and 3.7 kilometers), leaving the complex in a higher orbit for the upcoming arrival of a new crew on a Soyuz spacecraft.

Crew Alternate Sleep Accommodation — Flight engineer Jonny Kim set up a temporary sleep station for one of the three arriving Soyuz MS-28 crew members in the Columbus laboratory module. The Soyuz crew will briefly increase the station's residency to 10 members.

Spacesuit stowage — Flight engineer Zena Cardman photo-documented and prepared for packing components from the station's extravehicular mobility units (EMUs, or spacesuits) that are slated to return to Earth on Russia's Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.

Astronaut activity

"Gloves on, science flowing. Starting a new campaign for Stellar Stem Cells-2 inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox — where tiny cells teach us big things," wrote NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, an Expedition 73 flight engineer, in a Nov. 19, 2025 social media post from the ISS.

The Stellar Stem Cells Mission-2 study explores how microgravity affects stem cells becoming cardiac and brain cells. Growing such cells on Earth is not as efficient on the ground, but doing so in space helps scientists learn more about how to produce them for regenerative medicine both on Earth and for future spaceflights.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Nov. 21), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Oleg Platonov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Zena Cardman,Mike Fincke and Jonny Kim of NASA and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the space-facing port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.

There are four docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module, Progress MS-32 (93P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. "Willie" McCool, attached to the Earth-facing common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Unity node and Japan's HTV-X1 attached to the Earth-facing CBM on the Harmony node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 25 years and 19 days.

Add to this two comets that have been seen in the night sky, comet Swan and comet Lemmon. While the astronauts on the ISS had to take shelter during the recent solar storms to avoid potentially dangerous radiation, they did manage to capture this image of comet Lemmon appearing near the auroras on Earth.

What is it?

Comet Lemmon, officially designated C/2012 F6 (Lemmon), is a long-period comet discovered in 2012 by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona. It originates from the distant Oort Cloud, the icy reservoir of cometary bodies that surrounds our solar system.

As it approaches the sun during its 1,350-year orbit, comet Lemmon warms, releasing gas and dust that form its signature glowing tail.

Where is it?

This image was taken in low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station, which circles our planet at an average altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers).

Why is it amazing?

Because of their long orbits, comets are a relatively rare sight in the night sky. And catching one juxtaposed against powerful auroras is rarer still.

This photo is a good reminder of how dynamic, multi-layered and interconnected our corner of the universe really is, and how once in a while, things line up just right to capture something truly extraordinary.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about comet Lemmon and space weather.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were forced to rearrange some of their sleeping arrangements due to the potential threat posed by recent solar storms, a recent communications exchange between ISS mission control and crew members aboard the space station shows.

"We entered into an energetic solar particle event this morning, and we're going to go in and out of holes of higher than the baseline [radiation] risk," one operator told NASA astronaut Mike Fincke over the comms channel. Out of an "abundance of caution," the station's three Russian cosmonauts were instructed to spend a night in the ISS laboratory module

On the nights of Nov. 11 and 12, coronal mass ejections from one of the most energetic sunspot groups of the current solar cycle, AR4274, caused widespread auroras across the Northern Hemisphere. The same energized particles that interact with Earth's magnetosphere to create auroras also arrive carrying heavy, radioactive ions, which can be harmful to astronauts in orbit not shielded by the planet's natural defenses.

The ISS does have some defenses of its own, though. Only Russian crew members Oleg Platonov, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky were asked to bunk elsewhere for the night. "The USOS crew slept in their crew quarters and the Roscosmos cosmonauts camped out in the lab as a preventative measure due to the solar storm," Sandra Jones, a NASA public affairs official, told Space.com in an email. The ISS crew was also given a list of other places aboard the ISS to avoid during the solar storm event.

In addition to cosmonauts Platonov, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky, ISS Expedition 73 consists of NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman, as well as JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui. The latter four launched to the ISS Aug. 1 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, and are scheduled to remain aboard the station for another three months.

With the U.S. government shutdown over, American astronauts both on Earth and in space are able to resume their online presences. Just in time, Kim took to social media to share a video of aurora from space taken on Sept. 3 as his first post since the shutdown ended.

"3D printing" refers to a type of manufacturing that builds physical objects layer by layer. Different types of objects have been successfully 3D printed in space, but making functional human tissue from scratch — blood vessels, for example — requires special innovation. Achieving this, however, is viewed as a transformative step toward a future where organs can be 3D-printed for transplantation into humans who need them. The ability to 3D print human tissue in space also opens up the door for future medical research and testing.

You may be wondering, though: Why does the 3D printing of these organs need to happen in space? Well, One problem with manufacturing body tissue on Earth is that gravity adds stress to the materials being used in the process (aka, bioink), which poses a major challenge to producing muscle fibers exactly as they are in the human body, according to a press release from Zurich's Department of Health Sciences and Technology.

To work toward getting around this issue, researchers used parabolic flights to simulate microgravity conditions, then 3D printed muscle tissue in weightlessness with a biofabrication system they call G-FLight (Gravity-independent Filamented Light).

The latest research is another step toward a reality where it may be possible to manufacture functional human organs for transplantation, which could be a big deal because the current standard of relying on donors and the right blood match has made transplant wait lists tremendously long.

3D printing tissue in microgravity has been a budding field as of late; for instance, some scientists are working to manufacture artificial retinas in space, leveraging the microgravity environment to make better implants and help people regain sight. Furthermore, other types of vascularized tissue, including liver tissue, have been successfully 3D printed in general. In terms of organ donation, scientists have also grown replacement bladders using bioprinting, and have successfully transplanted a 3D printed windpipe.

On the space and gravity front, the news from Switzerland may also offer hope to astronauts’ muscle-mass problem. Microgravity is known to wreak havoc on muscle mass, and having the ability to manufacture and test muscle tissue in space may advance space medicine for future travelers aboard the International Space Station and beyond. For instance, 3D printed artificial hearts are slated to be sent to the orbiting laboratory to test how the environment of space may impact astronauts who may someday embark on long duration space missions.

A new "exosuit," tested during a two-week space analog mission last month in Australia run by the Austrian Space Forum, hopes to change that. The garment, which is meant to be worn under a spacesuit, features artificial muscles to make it easier to move around while walking, either on the moon or Mars.

"The hope is that this technology could pave the way for future wearable robotic systems that enhance astronaut performance and reduce fatigue during extravehicular surface activities," Emanuele Pulvirenti, a research associate at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom who sewed the suit himself, said in a statement released Tuesday (Nov. 4).

Exosuit research is hardly new. For example, NASA led the creation of an "Iron Man"-type suit called the X1 Robotic Exoskeleton a little more than a decade ago, while Sarcos developed the prototype XOS exoskeleton for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (intended for testing with the U.S. Army) around 2007. New tech developments strive to make each exosuit generation stronger and lighter, but Pulvirenti also got inspiration from the past.

Pulvirenti spoke with his grandmother, who is a tailor, as well as Vivo Hub colleagues at Bristol while developing the garment. The artificial muscles contained within reside in two layers: a nylon layer on the outside and a thermoplastic layer on the inside to make it airtight. Kevlar is used on the knee straps and waistband for tension resistance and strength.

Pulvirenti then flew to Australia last month, garment in hand, to work at what researchers call the largest lunar environment analog in the Southern Hemisphere. The University of Adelaide and ICEE.Space co-hosted four analog astronauts from Oct. 9 to Oct. 22 at a facility nicknamed CRATER, short for "Covered Regolith Analogue Terrain for Experimental Research."

CRATER is "a research testing environment that simulates conditions on the moon, including the unique lighting experienced during the course of a lunar day," John Culton, director of the University of Adelaide's Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, said in a statement about the analog mission. The mission saw the "astronauts" test spacesuits, habitats and research protocols.

Unlike many analog astronauts, who work with a small team on site, this group had global connections. A mission control in Austria served as a mission control not only for CRATER, but also for around 200 scientists in 25 countries who participated in the "World's Biggest Analog" — the largest simulation of its kind.

Mission managers are looking to add a new layer of professionalism to analog missions, which have been ongoing for decades, by introducing extra training, a requirement for publication and research on a more massive scale than ever before, the event website states.

In Australia, the analog astronauts focused on testing Pulvirenti's team's suit for comfort, mobility and biomechanical properties while walking, climbing and carrying items. While the tech is very early-stage, Pulvirenti added that he would love to see it tested on the International Space Station before the complex is expected to retire in late 2030.

In the meantime, he's targeting everyday use of the tech for folks with disabilities: "Our next goal is to create a hybrid suit that can switch between assistance and resistance modes as needed, which could be of great benefit for people in need of support with mobility, going through physical rehabilitation."

As it stands, food is produced on Earth, then transported to the International Space Station (ISS). While that's feasible for missions in low Earth orbit, it's impractical (costly at best, and technically unfeasible at worst) for more distant destinations.

So the European Space Agency (ESA) has launched project HOBI-WAN ("Hydrogen Oxidizing Bacteria In Weightlessness As a source of Nutrition"), part of the its Terrae Novae Exploration Programme, to test a powdered protein called Solein that can be manufactured in space with very few resources.

"This project aims at developing a key resource which will allow us to improve human spaceflight's autonomy, resilience and also the well-being of our astronauts," Angelique Van Ombergen, ESA's chief exploration scientist, said in a statement. "For human beings to be able to implement long-duration missions on the moon, or even one day to go to Mars, will require innovative and sustainable solutions to be able to survive with limited supplies."

Solein could be one such solution. It's a highly versatile powdered protein from Finnish food technology company Solar Foods that's made from microbes, air and electricity, via a gas fermentation process.

While Solar Foods has demonstrated the technology on Earth, slightly different techniques will need to be used in space. For instance, on Earth, ammonia serves as a nitrogen source for protein synthesis. But in space, the source would be urea — an organic compound found in urine.

Over the next eight months, Solar Foods will work with prime contractor OHB System AG on the ground to develop the technology necessary to test Solein production in space. If successful, Solein production would then be tested aboard the ISS.

"The aim of the project is to confirm that our organism grows in the space environment as it does on the ground, and to develop the fundamentals of gas fermentation technology to be used in space — something that has never been done before in the history of humankind," Arttu Luukanen, senior vice president of space and defence at Solar Foods, said in a statement.

"The behavior of gases and liquids in microgravity is vastly different due to lack of buoyancy, which can drastically affect the transport of nutrients and gases for Solein microbes," Luukanen added.

By the time that the International Space Station (ISS) is safely and deliberately de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean, the station will have been permanently crewed for 30 years — it has had visitors ever since the first Expedition 1 mission (consisting of one astronaut and two cosmonauts) first docked with the fledgling, half-built station on November 2, 2000. Yet as we begin to near the end of the ISS's time in low Earth orbit, we are beginning to think ever more about the station's true legacy, whether it achieved what it set out to achieve, and what we will lose when it is finally gone.

The loss of the ISS will be keenly felt by many; it will be like when one of our beloved Mars rovers falters and is forced to end its mission. Sure, there will be other Mars rovers after, but they will be different. There will be other space stations, but they will be different.

For some, though, says sociologist Paola Castaño-Rodriguez of the University of Exeter, the end of the ISS will be no loss at all, as they always saw it as a white elephant.

"When it comes to spaceflight, everybody uses the word 'we,' but when you're a sociologist, the first thing you ask is, who is 'we?'" she told Space.com. "Just as equally as you have enthusiasts, there's a lot of people for whom this is an obscene waste of money."

Castaño-Rodriguez studies the processes by which science is conducted on the ISS, the unique way in which people from across the world come together to perform this science, and the different criteria by which this science is valued. She's also currently working on her book, "Beyond the Lab: the Social Lives of Experiments on the International Space Station," which explores these topics through the stories of three science experiments: the first time lettuce was grown on the ISS, the twin experiment involving Mark and Scott Kelly, and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics experiment affixed to the exterior hull of the ISS.

The critics are correct that the ISS is expensive, having cost $150 billion to build and operate so far, with NASA alone spending $3 billion per year to maintain it. For that amount of money, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect some major outputs. Indeed, the science case for building the space station back in the 1990s was that the experiments that could be performed on the ISS could help cure cancer or discover dark matter.

"In a way, part of the problem is in how the space station was pitched, with these big promises that scientists had to make to get funded, and the issue is that those things have become the things that the space station is accountable for," said Castaño-Rodriguez.

The point is, the way we judge what we will lose when the ISS is de-orbited will differ depending on who is doing the judging — and how that judgement is cast. Looking at things purely from the eureka moments of scientific discovery that make headlines, people might consider the ISS a disappointment. Still, earlier this year, NASA has revealed that over 4,000 science experiments have been conducted on the ISS over the past 25 years, resulting in 4,400 scientific papers — but those findings have been, for the most part, relatively modest or incremental rather than revelatory.

However, looking at science in only this way would completely ignore what Castaño-Rodriguez considers to be the true success of science on the station, and what will be most keenly felt when it is lost.

"It takes for granted all the infrastructural work, all the operations, all the processes that, to me, are actually the key outcome of the space station, which is learning how to do science in such an adverse environment," she said. "In a way, it requires re-educating audiences about what is valuable about science. It's not just the shiny headline discovery, it is all the knowledge that is produced to enable a field to move forward. It's an epic and incredibly complex process to do these experiments on the space station.

"I think, when it comes to further space exploration, this infrastructural knowledge is going to be needed. There will be gaps and it is uncertain at the moment how they are going to be filled with other platforms."

Those other platforms that Castaño-Rodriguez refers to are commercial space stations NASA expects to replace the ISS. Companies such as Axiom Space, Blue Origin and a partnership of Starlab Space and Northrop Grumman have signed Space Act agreements with NASA to design and build new space stations. However, with this commercialization comes uncertainty about how much of what the ISS did will be transferred over to the new, privately developed orbiting habitats.

On the one hand, much of the expertise in these commercial ventures is from ex-NASA spaceflight people, and so rather than lose their expertise when the ISS is de-orbited, the processes and values that they embodied at NASA will be merged into the identity of the new commercial stations.

But on the other hand, commercialization could bring with it a loss of transparency.

In the United States, the direction of centrally funded science is governed by the peer review process of the National Academy of Sciences' decadal surveys. It is this process that guides what research NASA funds on the space station, which ensures that science on the ISS is judged only on its scientific merits.

"Are private companies going to be accountable to things like the decadal surveys?" asked Castaño-Rodriguez. "In terms of the process by which experiments will be selected, that's a big question, because the implication is that scientists just become the paying customers and the only experiments that go to the station are the ones that can be afforded."

Science today on the ISS is a truly public affair, with a mandate to make all the data collected by science experiments performed on the space station available in a public repository.

"This is a huge deal because you don't have to be involved in spaceflight to analyze the data," said Castaño-Rodriguez. "This open science is very much part of the space station's history that is not really talked about much, but it's a really important infrastructural aspect that is very international with researchers all over the world participating and engaging and re-analyzing the data produced on the space station."

The risk is that the transition from the publicly funded ISS to commercial stations could see the loss of this accessible open data, though Castaño-Rodriguez sees some reasons for optimism, for example through ex-NASA staff who, in the past, have championed open data and who now work for the private companies.

Castaño-Rodriguez also thinks commercial stations could be just as international as the ISS.

“They're going to be pathways to a lot of middle- to high-income nations to start paying for their astronaut missions," said Castaño-Rodriguez. For example, Axiom Space has already flown two Saudi astronauts on one of their missions (previously NASA had flown a Saudi prince on shuttle Discovery in 1985) as well as the first Turkish astronaut.

However, there's a difference between being a paying guest and a true partner, which is how the mix of international astronauts on the ISS has mostly been seen.

“I don't think [the commercial stations] will be anything like the particular international configuration of the ISS,” said Castaño-Rodriguez. "It's very much a product of its time."

That time being the 1990s and 2000s, off the back of the nearly five-decade Cold War and the dawn — arguably a false one — of renewed international cooperation both on Earth and in space. Militarily trained astronauts on both sides began shaking hands with people they'd been ideologically trained to treat as enemies. At the level of crew-member interactions, mission-control interactions, and scientific interactions, cooperation in space on the ISS helped break down barriers.

When we lose the ISS, we won't just lose its hardware, or how it made science in low-Earth orbit accessible. We'll also lose a pillar of space history that brought together people from different countries that were still learning to trust each other. Even today, despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine and tension that globally arose from the conflict, cosmonauts still fly to the station and work closely with their crewmates from other nations. It's hard to see that being replicated on a commercial station in today's geopolitical climate, at least to the same level and for such a prolonged time as it was exhibited on the ISS.

The space station really has been a unique experiment, an orbiting petri dish where humans have learned to work and live together in space. Wherever our spacefaring takes us in the future, it will owe a great deal to the legacy of the ISS. While we will lose the physical space station, Castaño-Rodriguez describes an infrastructural knowledge that will live on, at least in part, in where we take crewed space exploration next.

As part of her research, Castaño-Rodriguez has interviewed nearly a hundred astronauts, engineers and scientists involved in the ISS who have a unique insight into the importance of this orbiting science post. Perhaps the legacy of the ISS is best summed up by Sergei Krikalev, cosmonaut on the Expedition 1 mission 25 years ago.

"I asked him, when he was there on Expedition 1, did he remember any of the science experiments?" said Castaño-Rodriguez. "He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'the space station is the experiment.'"

As the shutdown continues into its second month, many federal employees are furloughed. Some, however, keep working (mostly without pay at the moment), because they're considered critical to the continued operation of the nation's functions, like the delivery of the mail.

Thankfully for the NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), their wellbeing falls into the category of "protection of life and safety," which NASA is tasked with maintaining while the government's doors are closed.

Like all federal agencies, NASA has had to severely cut back on its day-to-day activities, as more than 15,000 NASA civil servants have been furloughed since Oct. 1. Only essential personnel deemed "necessary to protect life and property" are granted "excepted" status, according to NASA's shutdown guidance. This includes astronauts in space and the technicians in mission control on the ground who support them.

For the most part, life aboard the ISS has continued as usual. The Expedition 73 crew currently occupying the space station have spent the past month conducting microgravity research and other experiments on their rotation and performing scheduled maintenance.

Of the seven astronauts currently living on the ISS, three are from the Russian space agency Roscosmos — Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov — and another is Japan's Kimiya Yui, from Japan.

The remaining three are NASA's Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke. Like their international counterparts, they've continued pulling their fair share of the chores in space. They just aren't getting paid for it. Like every other federal employees forced to work during the shutdown, they will later receive backpay compensation for the time they're currently putting in.

This past week, for example, Japan's new HTV-X1 cargo spacecraft launched and rendezvoused with the ISS. All three NASA astronauts were on hand for that capture and were scheduled to help unload its cargo on Friday (Oct. 31).

One thing NASA's astronauts aren't doing is updating their social media feeds or other lines of public communication. Yui, though, has been filling that gap. Over the last month, he has posted stunning views of Earth that have included the HTV-X arrival, comet Lemmon above the thin line of Earth's atmosphere, and auroras from space.

NASA has also classified work on the agency's Artemis moon program as critical and therefore continues work to launch the four-astronaut Artemis 2 mission around the moon as early as February 2026.

While work on Artemis has progressed, the continued shutdown may put a strain on agency resources as more and more employees are forced to work without pay. Delays could push the mission's hopeful February target date further into the launch window, which extends through April.

And any delay to Artemis 2 could be bad news for the timeline of Artemis 3, which will be NASA's first mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface since the end of the Apollo program in the 1970s. China, too, has aspirations of landing astronauts (or, as China calls them, "taikonauts") on the moon, and NASA and U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly stressed the importance of winning this new "moon race."

The International Space Station is one of the most remarkable achievements of the modern age. It is the largest, most complex, most expensive and most durable spacecraft ever built.

Its first modules were launched in 1998. The first crew to live on the International Space Station – an American and two Russians – entered it in 2000. Nov. 2, 2025, marks 25 years of continuous habitation by at least two people, and as many as 13 at one time. It is a singular example of international cooperation that has stood the test of time.

Two hundred and ninety people from 26 countries have now visited the space station, several of them staying for a year or more. More than 40% of all the humans who have ever been to space have been International Space Station visitors.

The station has been the locus of thousands of scientific and engineering studies using almost 200 distinct scientific facilities, investigating everything from astronomical phenomena and basic physics to crew health and plant growth. The phenomenon of space tourism was born on the space station. Altogether, astronauts have accumulated almost 127 person-years of experience on the station, and a deep understanding of what it takes to live in low Earth orbit.

If you've ever seen photos of the inside of the International Space Station, you've probably noticed the clutter. There are cables everywhere. Equipment sticks out into corridors. It doesn’t look like Star Trek's Enterprise or other science fiction spacecraft. There’s no shower for the crew, or a kitchen for cooking a meal from scratch. It doesn’t have an area designed for the crew to gather in their downtime. But even without those niceties, it clearly represents a vision of the future from the past, one where humanity would live permanently in space for the first time.

Space archaeology

November 2025, by coincidence, also marks the 10th anniversary of my team's research on the space station, the International Space Station Archaeological Project. The long history of habitation on the space station makes it perfect for the kind of studies that archaeologists like my colleagues and me carry out.

We recognized that there had been hardly any research on the social and cultural aspects of life in space. We wanted to show space agencies that were already planning three-year missions to Mars what they were overlooking.

We wanted to go beyond just talking to the crew about their experiences, though we have also done that. But as previous studies of contemporary societies have shown, people often don't want to discuss all their lives with researchers, or they’re unable to articulate all their experiences.

Astronauts on Earth are usually trying to get their next ride back to space, and they understandably don't want to rock the boat. Our research provides an additional window onto life on a space station by using archaeological evidence: the traces of human interactions with the objects and built spaces of the site.

The problem, of course, is that we can't go to the station and observe it directly. So we had to come up with other ways to capture data. In November 2015, I realized that we could use the thousands of photos taken by the crew and published by NASA as a starting point. These would allow us to track the movement of people and things around the site over time, and to map the behaviors and associations between them.

In 2022, the International Space Station Archaeological Project also carried out the first archaeological fieldwork off the Earth, an experiment designed by my collaborator, Alice Gorman. We asked the crew to document six sample locations in different modules by taking photos of each one every day for two months.

Lessons from photos

We learned that the crew of the International Space Station is a lot like those of us on Earth – perhaps unsurprising, since they live 95% or more of their lives here with the rest of us. They decorate the walls of the station with pictures, memorabilia and, on the Russian side, religious items, the way you might put photos and souvenirs on your refrigerator door to say something about yourself and your family. They make birthday cakes for their colleagues. They love to snack on candy or other special foods that they selected to be sent.

Unlike the rest of us, however, they live without much freedom to make choices about their lives. Their days are governed by lengthy procedures overseen by Mission Control, and by lists of items and their locations.

Crew members do show some signs of autonomy, though. They sometimes create new uses for different areas. They used a maintenance work station for the storage of all kinds of unrelated things, just because it has a lot of Velcro for holding items in place. They have to come up with solutions for storing their toiletry kits because that kind of affordance wasn’t considered necessary by the station’s designers 30 or 40 years ago.

We discovered that despite the international nature of the station, most areas of it are highly nationalized, with each space agency controlling its own modules and, often, the activities going on in each one. This makes sense, since each agency is responsible to their own taxpayers and needs to show how their money is being spent. But it probably isn't the most efficient way to run what is the most expensive building project in the history of humanity.

In our latest research, we tracked changes in scientific activity, which we found has become increasingly diverse, by documenting the use of specialized experimental equipment. This work was the result of questions from one of the companies competing to build a commercial successor to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.

The company wanted to know if we could tell them what facilities their customers were likely going to need. Of course, understanding how people have used different parts of a site over time is a typical archaeological problem. They are using our results to improve the experiences of their crews.

The archaeology of the contemporary world

Similar archaeological studies of contemporary issues here on Earth can also make future lives better, whether by studying phenomena such as migration, ethnonationalism or ecological issues.

In this way, we and other contemporary archaeologists are charting a new future for studying the past, a path for our discipline that lies alongside our traditional work of investigating ancient societies and managing heritage resources. Our International Space Station work also demonstrates the relevance of social science research for solving all kinds of problems – even ones that seem to be purely technical, like living in space.

You can read the original article here.

Sunday (Nov. 2) marked the 25th anniversary of continuous human occupation of the International Space Station (ISS), which has carved out a spot in the history books as one of our species' grandest (and most expensive) technological achievements.

Don't save any confetti for a semicentennial celebration, however — the ISS is in its home stretch. NASA and its partners plan to deorbit the aging outpost toward the end of 2030, using a modified, extra-burly version of SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule to bring it down over an uninhabited stretch of ocean.

And not just any stretch — the "spacecraft cemetery," a patch of the Pacific centered on Point Nemo, which is named after the famous submarine captain in Jules Verne's 1871 novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."

"This remote oceanic location is located at coordinates 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, about 2,688 kilometers [1,670 miles] from the nearest land — Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands, to the north; Motu Nui, one of the Easter Islands, to the northeast; and Maher Island, part of Antarctica, to the south," officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a brief Point Nemo explainer.

That remoteness explains Point Nemo's appeal to mission planners, who have ditched several hundred big spacecraft there over the decades: If there's no land nearby, there's virtually no chance that chunks of falling, flaming hardware could harm people, buildings or other infrastructure. (You'd have to be a pretty unlucky sailor to get hit in the spacecraft cemetery).

And some pieces of the ISS are likely to survive its blazing reentry.

"NASA engineers expect breakup to occur as a sequence of three events: solar array and radiator separation first, followed by breakup and separation of intact modules and the truss segment and finally individual module fragmentation and loss of structural integrity of the truss," agency officials wrote in an FAQ about the ISS transition plan.

"As the debris continues to re-enter the atmosphere, the external skin of the modules is expected to melt away and expose internal hardware to rapid heating and melting," they added. "Most station hardware is expected to burn up or vaporize during the intense heating associated with atmospheric re-entry, whereas some denser or heat-resistant components like truss sections are expected to survive reentry and splash down within an uninhabited region of the ocean."

This analysis is informed by the reentry behavior of other large spacecraft, such as the Soviet-Russian space station Mir and NASA's Skylab, agency officials explained. The final days of these two orbiting outposts hold some lessons for mission planners, especially as Earth orbit gets more and more crowded.

Russia steered Mir down to a controlled reentry near Point Nemo in March 2001. NASA tried to ditch Skylab over the Indian Ocean in July 1979 but didn't quite manage it; charred pieces of the station dropped onto a swath of Western Australia, and the town of Esperance famously fined NASA $400 for littering.

The 107-foot-long (33-meter-long), 130-ton Mir remains the largest vehicle ever to fall to Earth over the spacecraft cemetery (or anywhere else, for that matter), but the ISS will break that mark: It's about as long as a football field and weighs 460 tons.

This inspiring PBS science documentary utilizes cinematic recreations and advanced CGI alongside more than a quarter-century of NASA archival footage to tell the complete story of this extraordinary human endeavor.

Per the official description, it's "an immersive experience that places viewers inside the cramped modules and spacewalks, to experience the claustrophobia, wonder, and split-second decisions that defined life aboard humanity's most remote outpost."

"What's remarkable about the stories that 'Operation Space Station' tells is the way they remind us that the potential for disaster is a constant companion for the astronauts and how time and again, through innovative ideas and productive collaboration, they averted disaster," said NOVA Co-Executive Producer Chris Schmidt. "Over 25 years of continual habitation, not a single life was lost aboard the ISS. It's a testament to the courage and dedication of every astronaut and engineer. This film is comprehensive, emotional, and cinematic, and a real inside look at how humanity can thrive under extreme conditions."

The initial chapter, "High-Risk Build," examines the ISS construction process and considers the astounding engineering achievement it was. NOVA's synopsis explains how "every step of this ambitious project unfolded against the backdrop of a merciless vacuum, dangerous radiation, and extreme temperatures."

A second chapter, "Science and Survival," reveals unexpected challenges that the crew encountered once the ISS was finished. Astronauts deliver memories of danger and heroism, "from the time astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet filled with water while on a spacewalk, to the time a software glitch on a new module propelled the entire station to spin out of control."

Besides its past and present history, the docuseries ends by peering into the ISS's future as its journey is scheduled to conclude in 2030, when it is sadly de-orbited down into the Pacific Ocean.

"When you see the challenges that these astronauts had to overcome, you realize how thin the margin for error really is," said Executive Producer Dan Chambers. "These moments aren't just highlighting technical failures – they're showing people solving impossible problems, in the harshest environment we know of, with physics, chemistry, and sheer will."

"Operation Space Station: High-Risk Build" debuts Nov. 5, 2025 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. "Operation Space Station: Science and Survival" drops Nov. 12, 2025, at 9 p.m. ET. Both will stream at PBS.org/NOVA, NOVA's YouTube channel, and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.

Japan's new HTV-X cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station for the first time ever today (Oct. 28), delivering thousands of pounds of payloads and supplies to astronauts aboard.

The robotic HTV-X was captured by the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm — operated by NASA astronaut Zena Cardman and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) — today at 11:58 p.m. EDT (1558 GMT), as the station flew 260 miles ( kilometers) over the south Atlantic Ocean.

The HTV-X is the successor to Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), which flew nine missions — all of them successful — to the International Space Station (ISS) between September 2009 and May 2020.

Like its predecessor, the HTV-X can carry about 13,200 pounds (6,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit. It's hauling about 9,000 pounds (4,080 kg) of food and supplies on this mission, which began with a launch atop an H3 rocket on Saturday (Oct. 25).

Upon its rendezvous with the ISS, HTV-X carried out a series of test maneuvers, including a retreat-from-station procedure and systems checks ahead of spacecraft capture.

The new freighter is expendable, just like the HTV (which was also known as Kounotori, Japanese for "White Stork"). But the HTV-X can stay up for considerably longer stretches.

"HTV-X enhances transportation capabilities and adds the capability to provide various users with on-orbit demonstration opportunities for up to 1.5 years after leaving ISS until reentry," Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds the HTV-X for JAXA, wrote in a description of the vehicle.

HTV-X joins three other vehicles in the stable of robotic ISS cargo craft. The other freighters that currently service the station are Russia's Progress vehicle as well as Cygnus and Dragon, which are built by the American companies Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, respectively.

All are expendable except Dragon, which splashes down in the ocean for recovery and reuse. Dragon can therefore also haul scientific experiments and other materials down to Earth from the station.

Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Alexey Zubritsky, both of the federal space corporation Roscosmos, were back in the vacuum of space on Tuesday (Oct. 28) to continue and expand on the work they began during an extravehicular activity (EVA) on Oct. 16. During this most recent outing, they spent 6 hours and 54 minutes mounting, relocating and cleaning hardware on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module (MLM).

This EVA, like the one two weeks ago, began with Ryzhikov and Zubritsky opening the hatch on the Poisk Mini-Research Module-2, this time at 10:18 a.m. EDT (1418 GMT). After gathering their tools, the cosmonauts used a telescoping crane, called the Strela boom, to trasverse to their first worksite on the Nauka MLM.

There they tackled their first major task of the day, attaching a two-part apparatus to support a pulse plasma (Impuls) experiment and research into the effect that spacecraft have on Earth's ionosphere (IPI-500, by the NPO IT company in Moscow). The Impuls study will test the potential for jet engines to work in space.

Between running connectors and moving on to the next installation, Ryzhikov also cleaned a window on the Nauka module. Shutters that protect the pane when it's not in use were opened to allow the cleaning. When done, the shutters were closed again.

Ryzhikov and Zubritsky then returned to an experiment they installed during the earlier spacewalk two weeks ago. Ekran-M, or the Molecular Beam Epitaxy experiment, is designed to produce very thin materials for use in semiconductors. After discovering a loose gasket in the device's chamber, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky were instructed by mission control to carefully extract it using tweezers.

The spacewalkers then inserted a replacement cassette into the Ekran-M and, despite having to use wire ties to hold it in place, mission control reported getting good data. The older cassette will be returned to Earth for analysis.

Ryzhikov and Zubritsky wrapped up their time outside by relocating an exterior control panel for the European Robotic Arm (ERA), a manipulator that is used to access and service different areas of the Russian segment of the space station.

Russian EVAs often save for their final task the jettison of no-longer-needed equipment that has been gathered during the cosmonauts' work. With the pending arrival, however, of Japan's new robotic cargo vehicle, the HTV-X, on Wednesday morning (Oct. 29), it was decided to avoid any risk from the debris.

The spacewalk ended at 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT) with Ryzhikov and Zubritsky safely back inside the Poisk airlock.

Tuesday's EVA was the third for Expedition 73 and the 277th in support of the International Space Station's assembly and maintenance since 1998. It was Zubritsky's second spacewalk, bringing his total time outside to 13 hours and 3 minutes, and the third for Ryzhikov, who now has logged a total of 19 hours and 51 minutes in the vacuum of space.

A pair of cosmonauts will work outside the International Space Station today (Oct. 28), and you can watch the off-Earth action live.

Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will conduct a roughly six-hour spacewalk today, starting at around 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT).

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency. Coverage will begin at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT).

The duo "will install experiment hardware on the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, and relocate a control panel for the European robotic arm attached to Nauka," NASA News Chief Cheryl Warner wrote in an emailed statement on Monday (Oct. 27).

Most of NASA's activities are on hold due to the ongoing government shutdown, but the agency will stream today's spacewalk "and provide minimal technical commentary as this activity relates to excepted mission operations," Warner wrote.

This will be the second spacewalk in less than two weeks for Ryzhikov, who commands the International Space Station's current Expedition 73, and flight engineer Zubritsky. The duo also performed an extravehicular activity on Oct. 16, installing a semiconductor experiment on the orbiting lab and jettisoning an old HDTV camera.

Today's spacewalk will be the third for Ryzhikov, who will wear a spacesuit with red stripes, and the second for for Zubritsky, whose suit will have blue stripes, according to Warner.

It will be the 277th overall spacewalk in the history of the ISS, which has hosted rotating astronaut crews continuously since Nov. 2, 2000.

Japan's new HTV-X cargo spacecraft launched on its first-ever mission to the International Space Station on Saturday (Oct. 25).

The robotic HTV-X lifted off atop an H3 rocket from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT and 9 a.m local Japan time on Oct. 26).

It is expected to arrive at the station for its capture and berthing on Wednesday (Oct. 29) at about 11:50 a.m. EDT (1550 GMT).

The HTV-X is the successor to JAXA's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), also known as Kounotori (Japanese for "White Stork"), which flew nine missions to the International Space Station (ISS) between September 2009 and May 2020.

At 26.2 feet (8 meters) long, the new freighter is about 4 feet (1.2 m) shorter than its predecessor, but it can loft roughly the same payload mass to low Earth orbit (about 13,200 pounds, or 6,000 kilograms). The HTV-X also offers other advantages.

"HTV-X enhances transportation capabilities and adds the capability to provide various users with on-orbit demonstration opportunities for up to 1.5 years after leaving ISS until reentry," Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds the HTV-X for JAXA, wrote in a description of the vehicle.

The HTV-X's potential uses also extend beyond the ISS, according to JAXA. The agency envisions it aiding "post-ISS human space activities in low Earth orbit" as well as possibly flying cargo to Gateway, the space station NASA may build in lunar orbit as part of its Artemis program.

HTV-X's debut increases the stable of ISS cargo craft by one-third. The currently operational freighters are Russia's Progress vehicle and Cygnus and Dragon, spacecraft built by the American companies Northrop Grumman and SpaceX, respectively. Only Dragon is reusable; the others (including HTV-X) are designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere when their missions are over.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:15 p.m. ET on Oct. 25 with news of successful liftoff.

What is it?

Cubesats, compact spacecraft usually no bigger than a shoebox, have helped transform the landscape of space research in the past 20 years. Originally invented in 1999 by professors from Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University, the cubesat format was designed to lower the barriers to space for universities, small organizations and companies.

By following a shared design standard and using off-the-shelf components, teams can build and launch fully functional satellites in months rather than years, and at a fraction of the cost of traditional spacecraft.

Where is it?

This image was taken at the ISS's Kibo module in low-Earth orbit around 248 miles (400 kilometers) above our planet.

Why is it amazing?

While cubesats are used in a variety of space research, the three recently deployed by JAXA are focused specifically on auroral activity and the understanding of space weather. The YOTSUBA-KULOVER cubesat was developed by the Kyushu Institute of Technology, while the e-kagaku-1 was built by students in the e-kagaku Association and BOTAN was constructed by the Chiba Institute of Technology.

All three will look at specific factors around space weather and auroras, including volcanic pumice and solar activity.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about cubesats and the International Space Station.

Orbital observation

"Isn't this one of the top five stunning views among all the photos taken from the 'Kibo' window? Self-praise here..." wrote Kimiya Yui, an Expedition 73 flight engineer, with a laugh from on board the International Space Station.

"The ISS took on a different posture than usual, so the view from the window changed as well," explained Yui.

That post actually features two shots. In both, a band of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is seen above Earth's horizon, with the space station's solar arrays and the Kibo exposed facility in the foreground. One image also shows dancing green and red auroras, while the other captures a darker night sky.

"[It was a] special view that I wanted everyone to see, so I pushed through my work early to make time and took this photo," said Yui.

Astronaut activity

JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui has spent this week preparing for the arrival and capture of his country's first next-generation HTV-X cargo vehicle. Liftoff is targeted for Monday (Oct. 20).

"I'm waiting for you! I'll catch you gently, so don't worry!" wrote Yui to the resupply ship still on Earth on Friday (Oct. 17).

Yui will use the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to grab hold of the HTV-X1 spacecraft once it is in proximity of the manipulator's reach.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Oct. 17), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the zenith port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.

There are four docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX's CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of Harmony Node 2 and Northrop Grumman's NG-23 Cygnus XL, the "SS William C. 'Willie' McCool," berthed to the Unity node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 24 years, 11 months and 15 days.

Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Alexey Zubritsky, both with Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, marked the end of their first extravehicular activity (EVA) together at 7:19 p.m. EDT (2319 GMT) on Thursday (Oct. 16). The two cosmonauts reentered the Poisk module's airlock and closed the hatch behind them, 6 hours and 9 minutes after they began the spacewalk at 1:10 p.m. EDT (1710 GMT).

After configuring their tools, the two crewmates made their way to their first worksite, outside of the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Ryzhikov held onto the Ekran-M, or Molecular Beam Epitaxy experiment, while riding at the end of the European Robotic Arm (ERA), which was driven by cosmonaut Oleg Platonov from a workstation inside the space station.

Ryzhikov and Zubritsky installed the drum-shaped unit, ran power cables and mounted a swappable cassette. The experiment is intended to demonstrate the ability to produce very thin materials — too thin to be made reliably on Earth — that can go from the microgravity environment of outer space to being used in semiconductors.

Their primary task completed, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky then made their way to the Zvezda service module to remove and dispose of a high-definition television system that was originally a part of a Canadian commercial payload. Zubritsky then stood a the end of the European Robotic Arm and tossed the camera overboard, toward the rear of the space station, ensuring it would not come back in contact with the outpost.

"It is going so well," radioed Zubritsky as the camera disappeared into the shadow of Earth. "Jettison is complete."

Given its relatively small mass (180 pounds, or 82 kilograms) and volume (2 by 4.6 by 2.3 feet, or 0.6 by 1.4 by 0.7 meters), the jettisoned equipment will fall back to Earth and be destroyed during its reentry into the atmosphere.

Ryzhikov and Zubritsky also cleaned a window on the service module before heading back to the Poisk module, picking up an exposed material samples experiment to bring back with them into the space station.

Thursday's spacewalk was the second for Expedition 73 and the 276th in support of the International Space Station's assembly and maintenance since 1998. It was Zubritsky's first EVA and the second for Ryzhikov, who now has logged a total of 12 hours and 57 minutes on his two spacewalks.

In the past couple of weeks, the California-based startup has completed the final weld on the primary structure of Haven-1, followed by painting. Next steps include integrating the flight article's hatch and a domed window as the company moves closer to realizing its vision of a private space station in low Earth orbit (LEO).

Haven-1 is designed to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and, at around 31,000 pounds (14,000 kilograms), will be the largest spacecraft to lift off atop the rocket. The space station is planned to host up to four short-duration astronaut missions during its three-year lifespan, with crews of four people spending 10 days at a time aboard Haven-1 (or some other combination of missions totaling 160 astronaut days).

The space station is intended to be a stepping stone into a new era of human spaceflight, according to Vast lead astronaut Drew Feustel, who spoke with Space.com at the 76th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney, Australia, in early October.

"If we stick to our plan, we will be the first standalone commercial LEO platform ever in space with Haven-1, and that's an amazing inflection point for human spaceflight," said Feustel, who's a former NASA astronaut. The Falcon 9 for the launch is booked, and liftoff could take place as soon as the second quarter of 2026.

Vast's rise has been meteoric. Founded in 2021, the company has swelled to around 800 employees. Nearly all of its hardware is built in-house, with only solar arrays and thrusters outsourced. "When I joined in December 2023, we were still deciding between stainless steel and aluminum." Feustel recalled. "Now, less than two years later, the primary structure is welded."

Haven-1 will not just be a private station. It will look to take human spaceflight in a new direction, learning lessons from industry trends and making the human experience more central.

The company has been taking some pages out of the book of SpaceX, which has revolutionized access to the final frontier and was the first space company to start building a commercial vehicle that wasn't designed and developed by NASA.

"What SpaceX did — making it clean and functional at the same time — was something astronauts were skeptical of at first," Feustel said. "But we came to appreciate the calmness of the environment."

Vast has also picked up expertise and experience from Elon Musk's company. "A lot of our people are former SpaceX employees who wanted to do it again, but this time with a space station."

Haven-1 contrasts with the utilitarian International Space Station (ISS) and with a more human-centered design. The aesthetics, psychology and "Earth tones" of Haven-1 are designed for comfort and calm. Vast also hired a former Campbell's food developer to rethink astronaut cuisine, and has developed an inflatable sleep system that allows crew members to adjust the pressure to create a sense of simulated gravity for sleeping, rather than the tethered sleeping bag approach on the ISS. Visitors to the Vast exhibit at IAC could try out the new system.

When it launches in 2026, Haven-1 will mark a milestone, but it is also designed as a testbed for bigger plans. Haven-2 is a much more ambitious, modular project that Vast hopes could replace the ISS, which will be deorbited in 2030.

Haven-2's modules will add a second docking port, have a larger volume, fixed solar arrays, and likely a second window. Its modular design allows attachment of cargo or future nodes, including a central node designed to launch via SpaceX's Starship megarocket, which is under development. This larger outpost would be a stepping stone toward artificial gravity and long-term habitation.

"Haven-2 will be stretched in length, add another docking port, and become more modular. We can attach cargo supply while the crew is there," Feustel said. These modules will need to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with elongated fairings. "The central node can only launch on Starship. It's an eight-meter-diameter class structure."

Haven-1 is privately funded, and its launch is paid for. Haven-2's design depends on NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program, however. "Once we know the expectations, we can head down with full focus — our architecture is flexible enough to adapt," Feustel said.

Again, Haven-2 is a step toward a grander vision. "We were founded for long-term living in space, so artificial gravity," said Eva Behrend, Vast's vice president of communications. "But we realized we needed stepping stones. So we said, 'Let's just build it and prove we can do it.'"

"We think of ourselves as building destinations in space — places for people to live, work and look back at Earth," said Behrend. For now, it's Haven-1 and Haven-2 in low Earth orbit, but Vast has its sights set on destinations beyond.

Two cosmonauts will conduct a spacewalk today (Oct. 16), and you can watch the action live.

Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) today at about 12:50 p.m. EDT (1650 GMT), kicking off a spacewalk that's expected to last 5.5 hours.

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency. Coverage will begin at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT).

Ryzhikov, the commander of the ISS's current Expedition 73, and Zubritsky "will install a molecular beam experiment on the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, remove a mounting platform housing a commercial camera that will be jettisoned and clean windows on the Zvezda Service Module," NASA News Chief Cheryl Warner wrote in an emailed statement on Tuesday (Oct. 14).

"Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov will operate the European Robotic Arm on the Russian segment of the station during the spacewalk from inside the station," she added.

Most NASA activities are on hold due to the ongoing government shutdown, which furloughed 80% of the agency's workforce. However, NASA will stream today's spacewalk and "provide minimal technical commentary, as this activity relates to excepted mission operations," Warner wrote.

Other "excepted" agency activities include the operation of weather satellites deemed critical to public safety and work on the Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the moon in 2027.

Today's EVA will be the second for Ryzhikov, who will wear a spacesuit with red stripes, and the first for Zubritsky, whose suit will sport blue stripes, according to Warner.

It will be the 276th spacewalk in the history of the ISS, which has supported rotating astronaut crews on a continuous basis since November 2000.

For 24 hours a day, seven days a week since November 2000, NASA and its international partners have sustained a continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit, including at least one American – a streak that will soon reach 25 years.

When viewed in the history of spaceflight, the International Space Station is perhaps one of humanity's most amazing accomplishments, a shining example of cooperation in space among the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia. But all good things must come to an end.

In 2030, the International Space Station will be deorbited: driven into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.

I'm an aerospace engineer who has helped build a range of hardware and experiments for the ISS. As a member of the spaceflight community for over 30 years and a 17-year member of the NASA community, it will be hard for me to see the ISS come to an end.

Since the first pieces of the International Space Station were launched in 1998, the station has been home to significant research accomplishments across domains that include materials science, biotechnology, astronomy and astrophysics, Earth science, combustion and more.

Astronauts performing research inside the space station and payload experiments attached to the station's exterior have generated many publications in peer-reviewed science journals. Some of them have advanced our understanding of thunderstorms, led to improvements in the crystallization processes of key cancer-fighting drugs, detailed how to grow artificial retinas in space, explored the processing of ultrapure optical fibers and explained how to sequence DNA in orbit.

In total, more than 4,000 experiments have been conducted aboard the ISS, resulting in more than 4,400 research publications dedicated to advancing and improving life on Earth and helping forge a path for future space exploration activities.

The ISS has proven the value of conducting research in the unique environment of spaceflight – which has very low gravity, a vacuum, extreme temperature cycles and radiation – to advance scientists’ understanding of a wide range of important physical, chemical and biological processes.

Keeping a presence in orbit

But in the wake of the station's retirement, NASA and its international partners are not abandoning their outpost in low-Earth orbit. Instead, they are looking for alternatives to continue to take advantage of low Earth orbit's promise as a unique research laboratory and to extend the continuous, 25-year human presence some 250 miles (402 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface.

In December 2021, NASA announced three awards to help develop privately owned, commercially operated space stations in low-Earth orbit.

For years, NASA has successfully sent supplies to the International Space Station using commercial partners, and the agency recently began similar business arrangements with SpaceX and Boeing for transporting crew aboard the Dragon and Starliner spacecraft, respectively.

Based on the success of these programs, NASA invested more than US$400 million to stimulate the development of commercial space stations and hopefully launch and activate them before the ISS is decommissioned.

Dawn of commercial space stations

In September 2025, NASA issued a draft announcement for Phase 2 partnership proposals for commercial space stations. Companies that are selected will receive funding to support critical design reviews and demonstrate stations with four people in orbit for at least 30 days.

NASA will then move forward with formal design acceptance and certification to ensure that these stations meet NASA's stringent safety requirements. The outcome will allow NASA to purchase missions and other services aboard these stations on a commercial basis – similar to how NASA gets cargo and crew to the ISS today.

Which of these teams will be successful, and on what timescale, remains to be seen.

While these stations are being built, Chinese astronauts will continue to live and work aboard their Tiangong space station, a three-person, permanently crewed facility orbiting approximately 250 miles (402 km) above the Earth's surface. Consequently, if the ISS's occupied streak comes to an end, China and Tiangong will take over as the longest continually inhabited space station in operation: It's been occupied for approximately four years and counting.

In the meantime, enjoy the view

It will be several years before any of these new commercial space stations circle the Earth at around 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) and several years before the ISS is deorbited in 2030.

So while you have a chance, take a look up and enjoy the view. On most nights when the ISS flies over, it is simply magnificent: a brilliant blue-white point of light, usually the brightest object in the sky, silently executing a graceful arc across the sky.

Our ancestors could hardly have imagined that one day, one of the brightest objects in the night sky would have been conceived by the human mind and built by human hands.

Orbital observation

Expedition 73 flight engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) saw not one but two typhoons this week from aboard the International Space Station. (Typhoons are the same weather phenomenon as hurricanes: both are tropical cyclones. This type of powerful storm is called a hurricane in the Atlantic and central and eastern North Pacific regions, and a typhoon in the Northwest Pacific.)

"The eye of Typhoon 22 has become somewhat unclear, but it still appears to be maintaining its strong intensity as before," wrote Yui on social media on Thursday (Oct. 9). "Typhoon 23 is a bit distant, but it is swirling with thick rain clouds on its southern side."

"Stay safe while keeping up with the latest typhoon information!" he said.

Astronaut activity

Yui worked with his Expedition 73 crewmates and ground controllers to check out PROX, a device that will be used when Japan's next-generation cargo vehicle, the HTV-X, approaches the International Space Station for berthing.

"Preparations to welcome HTV-X to the ISS are steadily progressing," wrote Yui in a social media post on Oct. 8, 2025. "Here's the news: just like with Kounotori-kun, I've been assigned to operate the arm and grasp it this time as well. The responsibility is significant, but I'll cooperate with everyone to reliably carry out the mission!"

By the numbers

As of Friday (Oct. 10), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the zenith port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.

There are four docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX's CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of Harmony Node 2 and Northrop Grumman's NG-23 Cygnus XL, the "SS William C. 'Willie' McCool," berthed to the Unity node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 24 years, 11 months and 8 days.

An amazing new video shows flashes of sunlight sparkling off a batch of SpaceX satellites, with a green aurora glowing just below.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit, an accomplished amateur photographer, captured the stunning "train" of SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites during his recent mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The aurora was produced by solar particles slamming into Earth’s atmosphere.

Despite the natural light show, the Starlink group was "very visible. Many were as bright as Jupiter — they would flash from one to 10 seconds," added Pettit in a comment on X, where he posted the undated video on Tuesday (Oct. 7).

That is indeed quite bright. The peak brightness of Jupiter is roughly -2 magnitude in the night sky. For comparison, the brightest stars range between about magnitude 2 and -2, Venus can get as bright as -4, and the sun is at magnitude -26. (Lower numbers indicate brighter objects on astronomers' magnitude scale.)

Pettit’s latest space mission, a 220-day jaunt, concluded on his 70th birthday on April 20, when the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried him and his two crewmates touched down in the steppe of Kazakhstan. Since life gets busy on the ISS, however, Pettit has been steadily uploading a backlog of images and videos ever since coming home.

Starlink current consists of nearly 8,600 operational satellites, according to a tracker maintained by space debris expert Jonathan McDowell. While that’s a boon for remote areas looking for the reliable internet service SpaceX strives to provide, astronomers have concerns.

The brightness Pettit observed is one of the worries, as these Starlink trains — usually most apparent shortly after launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket — can interfere with astronomical observations. Starlinks also have brought up space debris concerns, both in that more satellites raise the risk of collisions and because their reentry could leave traces of metals in Earth’s atmosphere, potentially causing pollution and affecting climate.

In response to these concerns, SpaceX has changed the reflectivity of some of its satellites, and the company continues to emphasize that the Starlinks can be maneuvered in case of trouble. And many more Starlinks will reach orbit over time: SpaceX eventually hopes to have as many as 42,000 of the satellites aloft.

Floating above Earth, the ISS is a symbol of global cooperation, scientific discovery and the relentless curiosity that drives us to explore the cosmos.

It's not just a home in space — it's a laboratory, a classroom and a proving ground for technologies that may one day take us to Mars and beyond. From growing lettuce in microgravity to studying the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body, the ISS is a hub of innovation that's reshaping our understanding of life off Earth.

Whether you're a seasoned space nerd or just dipping your toes into the vacuum of space trivia, this quiz will challenge your knowledge and ignite your imagination about the ISS.

So buckle up, adjust your mental thrusters, and prepare for liftoff, you're about to take a spin through the fascinating world of the International Space Station.

Try it out below and see how well you score!

Orbital observation

Hello from space!

"Today was a busy day as well, but I was able to take some photos in between workouts," wrote Kimiya Yui on social media on Thursday (Oct. 2). "About 25 minutes after taking photos near the Mediterranean, we passed over Japan's Honshu. Those who saw the ISS yesterday evening and waved to it, ended up waving to me while I was doing strength training looking out the window."

Science status

Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 73 crew aboard the space station this week was:

SHRIMP — NASA astronaut Jonny Kim activated the State-of-the-art Humidity Removal in Microgravity Payload, a device designed to extract moisture from a spacecraft's atmosphere for reuse.

Heat Transfer Host 2 — Mike Fincke, also with NASA, installed the new experiment to study condensation when gas turns to liquid, potentially adding to the development of thermal systems for crewed spacecraft sent on deep-space missions.

ADvanced Space Experiment Processor-4 — NASA flight engineer Zena Cardman installed new sample cassettes for a study supporting the manufacturing of medicines (drugs or pharmaceuticals) in microgravity.

Station keeping

The Expedition 73 crewmates also took part in activities to maintain the space station's systems and prepare for future research.

Fluid Science Laboratory — Mike Fincke and Jonny Kim spent time configuring this European Space Agency (ESA) apparatus for researching the physics of fluid in microgravity. They changed out electrical cables, brought together components and mounted foam coarsening samples.

Capture Bag Demo — Fincke also installed the TransAstra Fly Trap Capture Bag Demo into the NanoRacks Bishop airlock, ahead of tests to show its capability to remain open, close and stay airtight in the weightless environment of space. The bag may be a method of capturing and disposing of space debris.

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace — JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui changed out specimen handling hardware and configured cables for this device, which uses lasers to heat materials to ultra-high temperatures while data is collected about the thermo-physical properties of the samples.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Oct. 3), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX's Dragon "Endeavour" attached to the zenith port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos' Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.

There are four docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos' Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX's CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of Harmony Node 2 and Northrop Grumman's NG-23 Cygnus XL, the "SS William C. 'Willie' McCool," berthed to the Unity node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 24 years, 11 months and 1 day.

Representatives of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) took turns laying out their plans on Monday (Sept. 29) at the 2025 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here in Sydney.

The One-to-One with Heads of Space Agencies plenary event kicked off with NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy being asked about his agency's plans for the moon. "It's been 53 years since we had humans on the moon, right? So I think it's important to go back. Starting next year, we're going back with Artemis 2; we're going out around the moon and back. Then, with Artemis 3, we're going to put astronauts on the south pole of the moon."

Duffy, asked about what success in space looks like 10 years into the future, said, "Sustained human life on the moon." That would also play a role in a much more challenging journey, he added: "I think we're going to have made leaps and bounds on our mission to get to Mars," and be on the cusp of putting boots on the Red Planet.

Head of ESA Josef Aschbacher spent his time talking about the agency's Vision 2040, an effort that he says aims to provide a framework of objectives for ESA beyond three-year funding cycles and the tenure of a single agency director general. "This is a much wider one, much stronger one, and a longer view strategy," Aschbacher said.

"This is something that is developed together with the member states," he added. The plan includes working with partners to get European astronauts to the moon, as well as developing key technologies and spacecraft for exploration.

This vision will also seek to boost European autonomy, resilience and independence in space, while underscoring the importance of cooperation and expanding collaboration with key partners such as JAXA and NASA.

India, meanwhile, stressed its ambition to get its own astronauts into space. ISRO chairman V. Narayanan outlined his country's growing ambitions for exploration and human spaceflight. India's Gaganyaan project to put astronauts into Earth orbit is progressing, despite delays. Narayanan said getting the launch vehicle rated for human spaceflight and conducting orbital flights with the crew module and reentry tests will prepare India to independently launch astronauts into space. The current target for the first crewed Gaganyaan spaceflight is early 2027.

V. Narayanan also stated that India's participation in the LUPEX joint south pole lunar landing mission with JAXA had recently been approved. That mission, in which India will provide the lander and JAXA the launch vehicle, is expected to fly later in the decade. Beyond this, ISRO is targeting 2040 for putting astronauts on the moon. "The exploration of the moon is going to be a continuous activity," V. Narayanan said.

Bian Zhigang, vice administrator of CNSA, outlined a number of recent successes, including the Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6 moon sample-return missions, some of the material from which has been sent to international partners for study. The country's Tianwen 2 probe is also on its way to a near-Earth asteroid following launch in May this year.

While China's goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2030 was not discussed, Bian did stress that China — which is beginning to construct its own satellite megaconstellations — is working on space debris mitigation, as well as space traffic management, including monitoring debris and providing alerts. The nation is also doing work that could help clean up Earth orbit. "We are currently researching the active removal of this space debris on orbit," Bian said through a translator.

CSA head Lisa Campbell also stated that Canada is preparing for one of its astronauts to fly around the moon as part of the Artemis 2 mission, set to launch early next year. But Canada also sees opportunities to make a mark globally in key areas of space, including in-space robotics, critical deep-space systems, AI applications, quantum capabilities and more. She also announced investments in dual-use space technologies and Earth observation initiatives that will also boost the Canadian economy.

Finally, JAXA president Hiroshi Yamakawa said that Japan is preparing to launch its first HTV-X, a new uncrewed cargo spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station. Launch is to take place a month from now, on Oct. 31, flying on the seventh H3 rocket.

Japan is also gearing up for an ambitious 2026 mission to sample Mars' moon Phobos. The spacecraft for the Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, is currently undergoing final testing. "Launch will take place in 2026 and the samples will be back in 2031," Yamakawa said.

The IAC in Sydney is the 76th edition of the annual congress, which brings together space agencies, astronauts, scientists, researchers, industry and press. This year's event attracted around 7,000 participants.