On Aug. 16, 1963, NASA's M2-F1 aircraft prototype made its first glide flight.

This wingless aircraft kind of looked like a flying bathtub. NASA made it to test a new concept called the lifting body, which was an unpowered glider that provided an alternative way to return piloted spacecraft to Earth. Instead of pummeling out of the sky in a ballistic reentry, the lifting body landed sort of like an airplane.

For its first test flight, the M2-F1 was towed 5,200 feet into the air by a C-47 Skytrain and then released. Test pilot Milt Thompson was in the cockpit, and he brought the glider in for a smooth landing in California after a two-minute descent.

Why it mattered

The success of M2-F1's first glide flight proved a wingless lifting-body aircraft could be controlled and landed safely. The introduction of a second potential method of returning astronauts from space was a crucial consideration during a time when NASA was racing against the Soviet Union for access to space and, ultimately, the moon.

Though NASA opted for the familiar capsule and heat shield design used during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, the M2-F1 and its subsequent test flights paved the way for NASA's continued research into lifting-bodies, and led to the development of an entire family of lifting-body test vehicles like the M2-F2, M2-F3, HL-10, and the U.S. Air Force's X-24A and X-24B, which executed lifting-body flights at much higher speeds and altitudes.

Eventually, data from these programs was applied to the development of the space shuttle, and the real-life practice of landing a spacecraft back on Earth the same way you would an airplane.

Cards Against Humanity isn't done with its scorched-Earth campaign against SpaceX and Elon Musk.

The Chicago-based company behind the popular fill-in-the-blank adult card game is inviting the public to join its design committee to erect an "Elon Musk is a Sad Little B----- with No Friends" monument on a stretch of land it owns near SpaceX's Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas.

Cards Against Humanity (CAH) brought a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024 for illegally dumping construction materials and other equipment on land owned by CAH. SpaceX decided to settle with the company in 2025 and removed its "gravel, tractors, and space garbage" from the property prior to the area's annexation for the city of Starbase's incorporation, according to CAH. But the company, and its apparent distaste for "racist billionaires," as it has labeled Musk, as well as President Trump, is still pushing back.

Trump's role in the ordeal informs why CAH owns the Texas property in the first place. The company launched the "Cards Against Humanity Saves America" campaign during Trump's first term in 2017, which included an effort to throw a roadblock in the U.S. government's ability to complete construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The campaign attracted 150,000 contributors who paid $15 each, enabling CAH to purchase the land and retain the services of an eminent domain law firm "to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall."

SpaceX had already purchased much of the surrounding land by then and officially broke ground at what would become Starbase in 2014. Starbase is the center of development and operations for SpaceX's Starship rocket — a fully reusable launch vehicle that will clock in as the world's largest, most powerful rocket in history once it's operational.

Major construction at Starbase began in earnest in 2018, with the first Starship prototype vehicle tests beginning in 2019. When CAH filed its lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024, SpaceX had already managed to launch four full-stack Starship test flights and begun construction of a second Starbase launch pad. That's around when the facility's general expansion began to encroach on CAH's property, according to a complaint the company filed in Texas' Cameron County 404th District Court.

Starbase's location at the very southern tip of Texas provides a safe and remote area for testing giant rockets. But SpaceX's increased activity there has triggered a large influx of employees in search of housing in and around the unincorporated Boca Chica area, which had been sparsely populated. SpaceX eventually began constructing clusters of homes for its employees around its facilities, and, in an effort to obtain some control over local governance for things like zoning and permitting, workers and residents voted to incorporate Starbase as its own city in May 2025.

That CAH's plot of land was annexed as part of Starbase's official incorporation has apparently not sat well with the people behind the popular card game, and they are once again engaging the public to try to get Musk's attention. In a Threads post on Aug. 13, the company asked, "Who wants to f---- with Elon Musk?"

"Now, our parcel has been annexed into a 'town' called 'Starbase' — a corporate hellscape littered with broken rockets and ugly mansions for Musk's executives," the post says. In typically colorful CAH fashion, it adds, "But hope is not lost! We still have our rights as proud Texas landowners: We can build something on our land. Something that will annoy Elon Musk. A grand monument to make him wonder, for a brief moment, 'Wait, am I a sad little b---- with no friends?'"

The announcement calls for the formation of a design committee for the aforementioned monument, which CAH describes as "a movement of like-minded people working together … to force a moment of introspection" for Musk, available for anyone to join for $10 at "ElonHasNoFriends.com". The post also advertises that 10% of profits from sales of its new game expansion decks will go toward funding the monument as well.

CAH isn't alone in criticizing Musk and SpaceX's Starbase activities. Musk's public persona has grown exponentially with SpaceX's successes over the past decade or so and his 2022 purchase of the social media platform Twitter, which he renamed X. Musk has also drawn criticism for his comments and actions during the 2024 election, which he may have helped swing via the donation of nearly $300 million to Trump and other Republican candidates. As early as 2022, a group of anonymous SpaceX employees posted an open letter to executives on an internal company forum saying, "Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment."

Others, however, praise Musk for the inarguable contribution of reusable rockets that SpaceX introduced with the Falcon 9, and his aspiration to make humanity a multi-planetary species. He was also named Time Magazine's person of the year in 2021, and SpaceX has become an indispensable asset to NASA and U.S. spaceflight. The company's Crew Dragon capsule is currently the only American-launched spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station, and NASA has contracted SpaceX to design a lunar lander version of Starship to deliver astronauts to the surface of the moon on Artemis IV in 2028.

SpaceX's activities at Starbase have received scrutiny as well. When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted its environmental assessment of Starbase to approve Starship launches from the site in 2021, more than 18,000 comments were submitted by members of the public, delaying the report's publication for nearly half a year as each one was reviewed. When the FAA did publish its assessment, SpaceX was cleared for Starship launches out of Starbase, pending nearly 80 actions needed to ensure its reduced environmental impact on the area, which SpaceX soon addressed.

To date, SpaceX has launched 13 Starship test flights with varying degrees of success. Some have resulted in the awesome return and catch of the rocket's Super Heavy booster using the "Mechazilla" chopstick arms on the Starbase launch tower, others featured Starship debris raining down within view of populated areas like The Bahamas, and at least a couple launches ended with a combination of both those outcomes.

The very public display of exploding rockets from SpaceX over the last several years has raised more than a few eyebrows of people wondering about the repercussions of where that potential aerospace carnage might come crashing down. But those results are also indicative of SpaceX's iterative "test like you fly" philosophy for vehicle development.

Musk sees Starship as humanity's ticket to extending our species' footprint to the moon, Mars and beyond, and is often quoted saying, about Starship and other subject matter, that "we live on the most interesting timeline." If Starship lives up to Musk and SpaceX's promises, it stands to create another monumental, industry-changing impact on spaceflight history, with the potential to launch our civilization into the cosmos. And, if it has to lift off within sight of a monument calling SpaceX's CEO "a sad little b---- with no friends," that would be pretty interesting indeed.

Prolific NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has announced his retirement from the U.S. space agency after 30 years of public service.

NASA announced Fincke's decision on Wednesday (Aug. 12), celebrating his contributions to spaceflight and long career of accomplishments.

“Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that day in a statement. Fincke departs as NASA's fourth-most flown astronaut, racking up a cumulative 549 days in space over four separate spaceflights. During those, he performed nine spacewalks and served twice as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Most recently, he launched as pilot on SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the ISS, stepping into the role of commander for ISS Expedition 74 from August 2025 to January 2026.

Before his acceptance into NASA's 16th astronaut class in 1996, Fincke earned two bachelor's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in aeronautics and astronautics as well as Earth science, atmospheric and planetary sciences. Following his time at MIT, he did a summer stint at the Moscow Aviation Institute and later earned master's degrees in aeronautics and astronautics, and in planetary geology from Stanford and the University of Houston-Clear Lake, respectively.

Fincke also served in the U.S. Air Force prior to his career at NASA. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1994, then was assigned as a space systems engineer and flight test engineer at Edwards and Eglin Air Force bases in California and Florida, respectively. Those stints were followed by his role as U.S. flight-test liaison for the Japanese-U.S. XF-2 fighter program in Japan.

Following his two years of astronaut-candidate training, Fincke was assigned to NASA's Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch's Crew Test Support Team in Russia. There, he served as ISS CAPCOM (Spacecraft Communicator) and ISS crew procedures team lead until he began official spaceflight training in 1999.

His first rocket launch was aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 mission to the ISS in 2004, where he served as science officer and flight engineer for Expedition 9 and completed four EVAs (extravehicular activities, or spacewalks).

Fincke's second launch brought him back to the ISS in 2008, as a member of Soyuz TMA-13. It was then that Fincke took command of the space station for the first time. As Expedition 18 commander, Fincke added two more EVAs to his career total and oversaw the preparation of ISS facilities to begin supporting an increase from three-person to six-person crews.

Fincke was also aboard for the final launch of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-134 mission in 2011, which returned him to the ISS for a third time. As mission specialist and robotic-arm operator, he supported the installation of the space station's dark-matter-hunting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) instrument, and performed three additional EVAs that marked the official completion of ISS orbital assembly and were the last-ever spacewalks by a space shuttle crew.

By 2014, Fincke was serving as chief of the Astronaut Office’s Commercial Crew Branch, where he played a key role in the development and testing of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner spacecraft. In January 2019, he was assigned to Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission as joint operations commander, and he remained on the prime crew until June 2022, when he transitioned to the CFT backup crew.

Fincke's most recent mission, Crew-11, launched to the ISS in August 2025. It was the second time he was appointed commander of the space station, this time for Expedition 74, but his stint, and that of the other Crew-11 astronauts, was cut short due to an unexpected medical issue.

Leading up to what would have been his 10th career EVA, NASA abruptly canceled spacewalk prep by Fincke and fellow NASA astronaut Zena Cardman after a "medical concern" arose that took priority over the planned station maintenance. Though not considered an emergency, the episode was deemed serious enough for NASA to return the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth earlier than expected, and Fincke and his fellow crewmates safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon a week later.

During the mission, NASA did not reveal the afflicted astronaut's name and condition, citing privacy concerns. A little more than a month after Crew-11's return, however, NASA and Fincke revealed that he was the crew member who experienced the medical issue, which he later described as a temporary inability to speak, according to an Associated Press report. Fincke fully recovered from the episode and is now in good health.

“Mike approached every assignment with experience, humility, and an unwavering focus on the mission,” said Scott Tingle, chief of NASA's Astronaut Office, in the agency's announcement. “Whether flying aboard the station, supporting crews from the ground, or helping shape the spacecraft that future crews will rely on, he consistently strengthened our team. His legacy is woven into the way we fly today.”

NASA did not indicate if Fincke plans to continue his involvement with the space industry through the private sector, but did highlight his dedication to support humanity's drive to explore the cosmos.

"I remain deeply committed to the work of exploration," Fincke said in the statement. “NASA gave me the extraordinary privilege of serving alongside remarkable people, flying and helping develop spacecraft, and contributing to the International Space Station from its earliest days through command in orbit … I am excited to carry those lessons forward and help prepare the next generation of engineers, explorers, and leaders."

A radiation-shielding vest might one day protect astronauts from dangerous, random outbursts from the sun, a new study finds.

More than 50 years after the final Apollo mission, NASA's Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon. To succeed, this project must protect astronauts from solar radiation, especially the intense and unpredictable radiation from solar storms. Coating an entire spacecraft with a meaningfully thick layer of radiation shielding remains impractical due to weight constraints, but wrapping astronauts in protective garments may potentially be helpful.

In the new study, researchers experimented with the AstroRad vest, which was designed by the Israeli startup StemRad with support from the Israel Space Agency and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. The garment was created to protect astronauts from explosions from the sun known as solar particle events.

"Radiation in space is unavoidable, and a single major solar particle event can make a substantial contribution to an astronaut's lifetime risk of radiation-induced cancer," study co-author Oren Milstein, CEO and co-founder of StemRad, told Space.com. "By significantly reducing that contribution, personal shielding could be particularly important for future lunar and Mars missions."

When it comes to protection against radiation, lead is excellent at blocking hazardous forms of light, such as X-rays and gamma rays. However, lead is much less effective at defending against the kinds of dangerous particles that can hurtle through space. For instance, when fast high-energy electrons known as beta particles strike dense lead atoms, they can trigger a shower of X-rays that are more harmful than the beta particles themselves. And if neutrons strike lead atoms, they can knock loose a spray of neutrons from the atoms' nuclei, worsening the impact from the radiation.

Instead, AstroRad relies on a high-density plastic rich in hydrogen. Among the elements, hydrogen possesses the highest density of electrons per atom, which can help create a dense shield to protect against incoming particles. At the same time, hydrogen atoms normally do not have neutrons, so if neutrons hit them, they cannot generate the kind of dangerous neutron sprays that can happen with lead atoms.

Moreover, the plastic in AstroRad is much lighter than lead. This makes it easier to move around in garments incorporating the plastic, and more practical for space missions in which weight is a major limitation.

The scientists combined thousands of hexagonal rods of the rigid plastic together like scales to create a flexible garment. All in all, each vest weighed about 57 pounds (26 kilograms).

The scientists developed a vest rather than a full-body suit or a helmet because "different organs and tissues have very different sensitivities to radiation, so shielding every part of the body equally is not the most effective approach," study co-author Jordan Houri, lead scientist for space exploration at StemRad, told Space.com. "At the same time, a full-body suit would be much harder to put on and move around in."

The shielding thickness of the AstroRad vest was based on how sensitive to radiation the underlying organs were. This strategy provides about a 30% greater reduction in the dose of radiation a person receives compared with distributing the same amount of shielding uniformly across the body, Houri said.

The researchers tested their vest during NASA's uncrewed Artemis I moon mission in late 2022 using a pair of extraordinarily complex dummies called phantoms. These artificial torsos were constructed of plastics that mimicked the density of human tissue, bone and organs, and each was equipped with more than 5,600 radiation sensors on and in them.

The two phantoms were designed to be adult females, since previous research found that breasts and ovaries are especially susceptible to radiation damage.

"Women are predicted to face a higher risk of radiation-induced cancer," Milstein said. "Targeted shielding could help narrow that difference in risk between male and female astronauts."

Since the phantoms mimicked women, they were given women's names, Zohar and Helga. "Helga was contributed to the experiment by the German Aerospace Center, and Helga is a traditional German name," Milstein said. "Zohar was contributed by the Israel Space Agency, which selected the name through a public outreach campaign. Zohar is a traditional Hebrew name meaning 'radiance,' which we thought was particularly fitting."

Zohar and Helga flew seated in NASA's Orion spacecraft; Zohar was equipped with an AstroRad vest, while Helga was not. Although Orion did not encounter a significant solar outburst during its 26-day mission to lunar orbit and back, the researchers were able to extrapolate how much solar radiation astronauts might experience based on what the phantoms encountered passing through the inner Van Allen belt of radiation surrounding Earth.

When the scientists analyzed past solar particle events, they found the AstroRad vest would have significantly reduced the dose of radiation a person during those outbursts — for instance, by nearly 60% for a solar particle event that happened in August 1972.

"We had originally anticipated something closer to 45%, so when we first saw the result, we thought we needed to go back and find an error," Houri said. "Instead, the detailed analysis showed that AstroRad's approach of providing targeted shielding to the most radiation-sensitive organs and tissues was even more effective than we had projected."

Such a reduction could spare astronauts the equivalent of up to 193 days of deep-space radiation exposure. "The most important implication is that AstroRad could help overcome one of the major health challenges limiting long-duration human exploration beyond Earth," Milstein said.

AstroRad is not something astronauts would wear continuously throughout an entire mission, Houri said. "AstroRad was developed as an emergency countermeasure for solar particle events, so astronauts would only wear it when radiation levels are elevated, typically for periods of hours or days," he explained.

Still, "although it is not something astronauts would need to wear throughout an entire mission, we designed the vest to remain usable for many hours at a time," Milstein said. During tests with the vests on the International Space Station, "several crew members even slept with it on."

The level of radiation protection the AstroRad vest provided was similar to that supplied by the Orion spacecraft's onboard storm shelter, "while allowing the astronaut wearing it to leave the shelter and continue mission-critical tasks," Houri said. "AstroRad can be used on its own or together with a shelter, but one of its main advantages is that an astronaut can remain protected while moving around the cabin and carrying out essential mission operations rather than remaining inside the shelter."

The scientists are now investigating whether it is possible to manufacture radiation shielding in space using onboard materials. For instance, in collaboration with Florida aerospace company Redwire, "we have already demonstrated that it is possible to 3D-print AstroRad components from recycled polyethylene aboard the International Space Station," Milstein said.

The scientists detailed their findings online today (Aug. 12) in the journal Science Advances.

Two NASA astronauts installed the seventh and final set of mounting hardware for new sets of solar arrays during a successful 6.5-hour spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.

Jessica Meir and Anil Menon on Thursday (Aug. 6), assembled the modification kit for one of the space station's eight power channels, which will allow for the future addition of a new ISS Rolll-Out Solar Array (iROSA). Since 2021, astronauts on prior spacewalks have deployed six of the iROSA assemblies, leaving now just two awaiting delivery to the station later this year.

Like building a giant erector set, Meir and Menon worked to assemble and bolt together the triangular brackets on the 3B power channel, located on the far right, or starboard (S6) segment of the station's backbone truss. Menon was positioned on an articulating portable foot restraint (APFR) atop a worksite interface (WIFEX), providing a stable angle to work from the truss.

Once the modification kit structure was built and secured to the 3B mast canister, the two spacewalkers routed cabling that will carry the electricity from the future iROSA into the 3B power channel and then covered the struts with multi-layer insulation to protect them from micrometeoroid strikes.

The iROSA wings sit forward of the legacy solar arrays, augmenting their electricity generation rather than replacing it. The station's eight original arrays began showing degraded power output as they exceeded their 15-year design life. When used in tandem with the new iROSA wings, the upgraded system will increase the station's electricity supply by 20% to 30%.

The other power channel currently without an iROSA deployed is 2A on the left, or port side, of the station.

"Anil, you can see the moon to the — well, I am not sure what way you're facing, but…," said Meir, taking a short break during the spacewalk to notice NASA's next destination for astronauts under its Artemis program.

"To my right. Yeah, I see it — thanks for the heads-up," said Menon. "I can see a future moon base there."

"I can see it, too!" Meir said.

Meir later turned her attention to Mars with her closing words of the day.

"On this day in 2012, NASA's robotic rover Curiosity successfully landed on the surface of Mars with the goal of understanding if the planet could have fostered life. Curiosity achieved that goal within a year," she said. "One day, humans will visit Curiosity, propelled by the groundbreaking science, technology demonstrations and operations conducted here on the International Space Station for almost 26 years now."

"Today, we made one more step toward expanding the ISS power system, further sustaining our human presence in low Earth orbit, as we prepare to take those next steps," said Meir.

Thursday's spacewalk began at 8:33 a.m. EDT (1233 GMT) when Meir and Menon switched their spacesuits to internal battery power. After collecting their tools and reentering the Quest airlock, the spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), concluded at 3:00 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), 6 hours and 27 minutes after it began.

This was the 96th U.S. EVA and 281st spacewalk overall in support of the International Space Station's assembly, maintenance and enhancement. It was the first career spacewalk for Menon and the sixth for Meir, bringing her total time on EVA to 42 hours and 33 minutes.

This was the first spacewalk for the space station's Expedition 75 crew. There are two more U.S. outings scheduled for this month: EVA 97 will work to replace a space-to-ground antenna on Aug. 13, and EVA 98 will connect power channel cables and data relay systems as part of ongoing maintenance, including preparations for the station's future deorbit, as well as replace a navigational aid used for spacecraft docking on Aug. 25.

The great technological leaps in American history have often featured influential industrialists who step forward as vanguards, leading the way to a better tomorrow while emerging as major players in extreme endeavors.

Spaceflight is no exception.

A new CNN documentary titled "Eclipsing Power: Musk, Bezos, and the New Space Race" shines a light on how a pair of visionary billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, have been shaping and steering our country's space program and the bright future of private space enterprise.

Premiering on Sunday (Aug. 9) at 8 p.m. EDT/PDT on CNN, the documentary examines the contributions of the two men and how their considerable wealth have affected America's spaceflight efforts. It also features exclusive interviews with Chief Ambassador of The Planetary Society Bill Nye, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, journalist and CNN contributor Kara Swisher, Elon Musk biographer Walter Isaacson and many others.

"'Eclipsing Power' traces how Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have transformed the future of space exploration, shifting what was once an endeavor primarily led by government into a race driven by private ambition," states the show's official synopsis.

"It follows the rise of SpaceX and Blue Origin, detailing how two of the world's most influential entrepreneurs have come to play an outsized role in America's space program. The hour looks at both the opportunities and the risks of NASA's growing reliance on private industry, the race to return humans to the moon, and what this new era of commercial spaceflight could mean for the future of humanity."

"What am I most excited about in space exploration?," Nye shares in our exclusive clip. "Well, for me, discovering evidence of life elsewhere. Maybe the rocks on Mars. Maybe under the ice on Europa, the moon of Jupiter with twice as much ocean water as Earth. Maybe Enceladus or Titan. It would change the course of human history. We’ll see you up there!"

CNN’s FlashDocs division offers provocative storytelling on topical issues shaping society and culture. Former FlashDocs programs have included "Bad Bunny and the Halftime Show: Rhythms of Resistance" and "Behind the Bob: Vogue's Anna Wintour."

Executive produced by Eric Johnson alongside CNN Studios' Amy Entelis and Katie Hinman, "Eclipsing Power: Musk, Bezos, and the New Space Race" will first stream exclusively at CNN.com/Watch and on the CNN app beginning on Friday (Aug. 7) and has its broadcast debut on Sunday at 8 p.m. EDT on CNN.

A U.S.-Russian crew returned to Earth from the International Space Station early Sunday morning (July 26), after 241 days in orbit.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos undocked from the orbiting lab on Sunday at 3:03 a.m. EDT (0703 GMT).

The Soyuz, known as MS-28, landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan 3 hours and 24 minutes later, at 6:27 a.m. EDT (1027 GMT).

The crew's departure activities began on Saturday morning with a change-of-command ceremony aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Kud‑Sverchkov handed over the reins of the orbiting lab to NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, part of the transition from ISS Expedition 74 to Expedition 75 (which officially began when Soyuz MS‑28 undocked).

The crew then gave their farewells and closed the hatches between the ISS and Soyuz MS-28 on Saturday night.

Soyuz MS-28 launched to the ISS on Nov. 27, which was Thanksgiving Day. That liftoff kicked off the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud‑Sverchkov, who now has logged 426 days and 9 minutes in space.

The MS-28 trio orbited Earth 3,856 times and traveled a total of more than 102 million miles (164 million kilometers).

Now back on Earth, the three spaceflyers were first flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where recovery teams were based. Williams then will return to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Kud‑Sverchkov and Mikaev head back to their training base in Star City, Russia.

LOS ANGELES — Standing in the shadow of the space shuttle Endeavour, a group of retired NASA astronauts announced their plan to travel the country visiting colleges to try to inspire younger generations to get out and vote. This campaign comes as we lead up to the November midterm election.

This past year, a group of retired NASA astronauts teamed up for a single cause: to defend the U.S. constitution. They banded together as part of a non-profit, non-partisan activist organization called Astronauts for America. So far, they have been speaking out, using their astronaut expertise, platforms, cultural relevance and role model status to speak out in support of "science, evidence-based decision-making, public service and the rule of law," their website reads. Now, as the group announced at an event at the California Science Center's new air and space center — home to the shuttle Endeavour — they're hitting the road on a campaign tour of colleges called "Vote for Freedom."

"We have to do what we can to ensure that the country makes it through the challenges that we're dealing with here, and that is the message that we're going to be taking to colleges and universities," Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart told Space.com. "And the agency that we have, the immediate agency, is to vote."

This tour will send astronauts from the group on a four-month jaunt across the country. Astronauts from the group's more than 100 members will visit state and community colleges, county fairs and even town halls, aiming to reach first-time voters and young people who might be new to voting.

"I'm really excited to look a bunch of younger Americans in the eye and make sure that they know that someone that they can trust said: ;Listen, you matter, because our country matters, and our country needs you,'" former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman told Space.com.

"It's with a uniquely American kind of freedom that we were able to go to the moon, and that same freedom launched the spaceship behind us 25 times into space. Now we see those freedoms under heavy threat," former NASA astronaut Steve Smith said during the event. "We're seeing chaos instead of community, violence instead of votes, lies instead of laws, and fear instead of fate. That's how democracy and freedom die."

"The mission is all that matters. Now, our country is the mission, and our message is simple: going to the polls is one small step for you, and one giant leap for our country," Smith added.

This campaign leads up to the U.S. midterm elections this November. Midterm elections happen halfway through every four-year presidency. This election allows voters to decide what Congress looks like, and which political party controls Congress. This can ultimately have a major impact on what laws and decisions are passed moving forward, and whether Congress will reject or change actions by the president moving forward. And this group of astronauts is serious about the importance of getting people out to exercise their right to vote.

"I'm a child of the segregated South; I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina," former astronaut and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who also serves as a steering committee member for Astronauts for America, said at the event. "I graduated in 1964. Anybody know what happened in 1964? The Voting Rights Act. So, as a person growing up in my hometown, it wasn't a guarantee that my mom and dad were going to be able to go out and vote. I look at what's going on today about people trying to restrict the ability of people to cast their ballot. That's not who we are. That's not America."

The group of astronauts recently spoke out about voting access after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the right to absentee voting, in response to attempts by the Trump administration to place restrictions on the current voting process. Especially leading up to the November midterms, each vote carries significant weight. And while this nonpartisan group isn't telling you who to vote for, they do think that everyone who can should vote.

"As astronauts, we signed an oath to our nation, and we are mission-oriented people. And our nation is now the mission," Coleman added. "We need to recognize that everyone's voice is important, and one of the voices that we don't hear very much is the young people. And we want them to understand that, even though sometimes change can seem daunting, their perspective is really important, and, you know, their voice is important."

Astronauts just flew to Earth orbit space atop a rocket emblazoned with an energy-drink ad.

The Soyuz MS-29 launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday (July 14), from the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, used a Soyuz rocket festooned with ads for Лимонад ("Lemonade") LIT ENERGY. The ads are visible in shots of the rocket's rollout on July 11, published here and here via NASA's Flickr account.

The Soyuz used for the launch also featured drawings from children with cancer — as well as the phrase "Life has no end" — to advertise the Unity Charitable Foundation, according to a Russian-language state media report machine-translated into English. The campaign is part of a series in support of the foundation that began in November 2025, the media report added.

To be sure, the Russian space agency Roscosmos (like other space agencies) often adorns its rockets with colorful artwork and logos that may not necessarily result in payment. In June 2018, for example, a Soyuz launched with a FIFA World Cup logo that may have been a publicity campaign to advertise the soccer competition, which was occurring that month in Russia.

While there have been some experiments by other space agencies regarding advertising — anyone remember the space cola wars? — here are a few notable examples from Russia and its predecessor state, the Soviet Union.

• A 1990 cosmonaut launch, partly for the Tokyo Broadcasting Service, carried a Japanese journalist from TBS — as well as advertisements on the side of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. Sony, Unicharm and Pocari Sweat patches were also reportedly flown on the mission.
• After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Mir space station featured advertisements for companies like RadioShack, Pepsi and Israel's Tnuva Milk.
• A Pizza Hut ad flew on a Russian Proton rocket in 2000 for roughly $1.25 million (nearly $3 million in today's dollars). The restaurant chain then followed up in 2001 with a special space pizza delivery — but using salami, as it is more shelf-stable than pepperoni.

So Russia's practice of launching ads into space is not new. However, Ars Technica has suggested that contractions in the Russian economy led to very recent changes in the country's laws for space advertising that could lead to more examples like this.

Russia's unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 caused many international partnerships in space (and other projects) to fall apart, which Ars believes may have led to Russian President Vladimir Putin's authorization for recurring space ads. The new legislation was cited on Roscosmos' Telegram account in October 2025, the Ars report added.

"According to the amendments, Roscosmos has been granted the right, effective January 1, 2026, to place advertising on space objects owned by both the state corporation itself and federally," said the Roscosmos statement, according to Ars. "The amendments will create a mechanism for attracting private investment in Russian space exploration, and reduce the burden on the state budget."

Roscosmos and NASA continue to work together on the ISS despite sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine, which is ongoing. And Tuesday's launch marked a milestone in that cooperation, as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman became the first with his title to attend a Soyuz launch in eight years.

SpaceNews noted that Isaacman and Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov had the first reported face-to-face meeting between the agency heads since the last in-person NASA chief visit, for an October 2018 launch. After the meeting between Isaacman and Bakanov, Russia announced a two-year extension of its ISS commitment, to 2030, as well as an agreement in principle to continue offering NASA astronauts seats on the Soyuz in exchange for seats on commercial U.S. vehicles, among other developments.

Towering glaciers flow down the Himalayas' northern slopes like icy giants cascading onto China's Tibetan Plateau.

What is it?

Back in May, from aboard the International Space Station 259 miles (417 kilometers) above Earth, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir peered out the station's windows with her camera and captured a breathtaking sight.

In that fleeting moment from space, she captured the northern slopes of the Himalaya mountains stretching into China. And atop the mountains, slow-moving rivers of glacial ice carve their way downhill.

This view shows the enormity of this mountain range, which separates Nepal from China's Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayas have the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, with over 110 mountain peaks surpassing 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) of elevation above sea level. Ranging across five countries (Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Pakistan) the mountain range is about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) wide.

Why is it incredible?

With the range being so incredibly expansive, this view from space offers a unique vantage point from which we can see a large swath of the mountains in motion. Even in a helicopter, you would get a fairly localized view of individual mountains in the Himalayas. This view provides a striking scene that you cannot see from the surface of our planet.

This view is also a reminder of how important space is in our evolving understanding of climate change. As our planet continues to change and sea levels rise with warming temperatures, we can see glacial movement from space. This is an important resource to researchers fighting to better understand climate change so we can better fight it. With access to information about glaciers and how they melt, move and flow across the world, we can be better prepared to protect our planet and its inhabitants.

As our planet revels in the recent achievements of this spring’s Artemis 2 mission and its four astronaut crew members, a new four-part PBS documentary series takes a scrutinizing look at space exploration and its inherent perils and promises. "Once Upon a Time in Space" will be available to watch on PBS (and the PBS app) starting on July 14, 2026 (9pm ET).

Directed by James Bluemel and his filmmaking team — the crew behind the award-winning "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland" and "Once Upon a Time in Iraq" — "Once Upon a Time in Space" explores the connections between those venturing beyond Earth's gravity and the support staff remaining behind while pioneering souls venture into hostile outer space territory.

"'Once Upon a Time in Space' tells the human stories behind one of our most extraordinary endeavors: the exploration of space," states the official synopsis. "Moving beyond scientific achievement, the series examines the personal experiences of astronauts, cosmonauts, ground-based participants, and the loved ones left on Earth. Across four episodes, it traces significant landmarks in spacefaring history, from the birth of the Shuttle and the pioneering Space Station Mir to the rise of commercial spaceflight."

"Through powerful firsthand testimony and intimate, unseen archival footage, a complex portrait of humanity emerges: one that lays bare both our fragility and boundless curiosity. Accounts of bravery, friendship, and tragedy are told against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, connecting technical and geopolitical developments to those who experienced them."

Here’s a schedule of the docuseries’ chapters and their slated air dates:

• Episode 1 "America First" – Tuesday, July 14 – 9:00 p.m. ET
• Episode 2 "The Russian Thing" – Tuesday, July 21
• Episode 3 "Politics Always Wins" – Tuesday, July 28
• Episode 4 "Friends Forever" – Tuesday, August 4

This remarkable show features NASA astronauts Charlie Bolden, Anna Lee Fisher, Bill Fisher, Michael Foale, Jerry Linenger, Mike Mullane, Dan Tani, and Terry Virts. They’re joined by cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander ‘Sasha’ Lazutkin, NASA officials, aerospace engineers, and numerous family members.

Produced in collaboration with the BBC, "Once Upon a Time in Space" was first broadcast last fall in the UK, but now makes its U.S. premiere at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.

The International Space Station has three new residents.

NASA's Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1447 GMT; 7:47 p.m. local time in Baikonur), heading toward the orbiting lab.

Their Soyuz executed nominal side booster separation about two minutes after launch, followed by second stage separation about 2.5 minutes later, as the rocket flew at 105 miles (169 kilometers) in altitude. Third stage orbital insertion and separation was completed at about 8 minutes and 46 seconds, putting Russia's Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft and crew on course to chase down the International Space Station (ISS).

The trio caught up to the ISS after just two orbits, docking with the outpost at 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT). The two spacecraft were flying 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Mediterranean Sea at the time, NASA officials said during the agency's docking webcast.

That webcast will resume at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT) ahead of the opening of the hatches between the Soyuz and the ISS, which is expected around 3:55 p.m. EDT (1955 GMT).

The MS-29 trio will join the seven astronauts already living aboard the ISS — NASA's Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams, the European Space Agency's Sophie Adenot, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev, and Andrey Fedyaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

This is the first spaceflight for Menon, who was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in December 2021, in the agency's Group 23. He's married to Anna Menon, who was picked in the next astronaut candidate class, Group 24, in September 2025.

Anna Menon has already been to space, though not with NASA. In September 2024, while an employee of SpaceX, she flew on the company's Polaris Dawn mission to Earth orbit. That five-day flight, which was funded and commanded by current NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, featured the first-ever commercial spacewalk and reached a maximum altitude of 870 miles (1,400.7 kilometers) — higher than any previous crewed Earth-orbiting mission had gotten.

Anil Menon is a former SpaceX-er as well; he was the company's first-ever flight surgeon.

MS-29's flight is the second-ever space mission for both Dubrov and Kikina. Dubrov lived aboard the ISS from April 2021 to March 2022, and Kikina spent five months on the outpost, from October 2022 to March 2023.

Kikina, the only female member of Russia's active astronaut corps, flew to and from the ISS back then on SpaceX's Crew-5 mission. That was a big deal: She was the first Russian ever to fly on a private U.S. spacecraft, and the first cosmonaut to fly on any American space vehicle since December 2002, when cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Sergey Treshchov came back to Earth from the ISS aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

The MS-29 trio will spend about eight months living and working on the orbiting lab. Menon will help conduct a wide variety of scientific experiments during that stretch.

"He will continue research to refine in-space production of semiconductor crystals to enable the large-scale manufacturing of components needed for high-performance computers, artificial intelligence, and improved medical devices," NASA officials wrote in a July 9 media advisory.

"Menon also will perform ultrasound using augmented reality and artificial intelligence methods that could eliminate the need for medical support from Earth on future space missions," they added.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:55 p.m. ET with news of successful docking.

A new ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court protecting voter rights could extend to astronauts living and working in space and training internationally, their families, and the multitude of NASA workers who travel to support their missions.

On Monday (June 29), the Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots can be counted toward a total vote even if they arrive after election day, as long as they are postmarked by election day. The ruling followed efforts by the Trump Administration to place restrictions on mail-in voting. In a new statement, the nonpartisan activist organization Astronauts for America spoke out in support of the Supreme Court's decision, which supports absentee voting.

"We don't want to see barriers put in place [that] make it more challenging for somebody to exercise their constitutional right of voting," retired NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence told Space.com. Lawrence is a member of Astronauts for America, as well as a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where she served as a captain, engineer and helicopter pilot.

What happened?

An executive order issued by President Trump in March 2026 attempted to place a number of restrictions on voting in the country, including limitations on mail-in or absentee voting. The order directed the United States Postal Service to only transmit ballots for states that compile and submit lists of eligible mail-in voters 60 days before elections, added requirements and complications to mail-in ballots and attempted to limit who receives a ballot in the mail.

This order not only added layers to limit voting access, but it conflicted with existing procedures set by states for absentee voting. Additionally, the U.S. Constitution places the authority to change election rules and processes with Congress, not the president, though this was not the first executive order put out by Trump to attempt to change election rules, CNN has reported.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court blocked the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out this executive order, declaring that mail-in ballots may be counted if they arrive up to five days after election day, as long as they are postmarked by election day.

"This is key to making sure we have free and fair elections, that people have the ability to cast their vote, and it's not an overwhelming burden for them to do that again," said Lawrence.

Astronauts vote (and so do the people around them)

In a statement shared on social media, Astronauts for America commented on the recent ruling.

"We at Astronauts for America are pleased to see the justices take this critical step toward safeguarding free and fair elections, and ensuring that every eligible voter has their ballot counted," the statement reads. "As astronauts, some of us cast our votes from space. As military veterans, many of us relied on voting by mail. Upholding this grace period ensures that astronauts and other Americans are able to exercise their civil rights."

"Voting is the cornerstone of our American democracy, and this is an important step forward in our battle to ensure everyone has the right to vote," the statement continued. "While the Supreme Court ruling should be celebrated, we must continue standing up for our democracy and constitutional principles."

Astronauts have used absentee voting systems for decades, and they do so regularly: Astronauts have been living in orbit on board the International Space Station continuously since November 2000. When astronauts are going to be in space during an election, NASA has a digital system that allows them to submit absentee votes. But as the statement above suggests, astronauts don't just need absentee voting during their space missions.

Astronaut training can take place all around the world, especially if there is a mission with international collaboration. Lawrence shared that, during her tenure with NASA's space shuttle program, there was a 16-month period when she had to live and train full-time in Russia. And, astronauts don't prepare for space in a vacuum. Family members like spouses might travel with them for long-term training, and there are a wide variety of mission managers and support staff for crewed missions (and their families) who might have to be on long-term travel as well.

Additionally, many astronauts like Lawrence are also military veterans who, during their service, are only able to vote through absentee voting, sometimes for years on end. While this ruling extends far past astronauts, even within the space sector, absentee voting has protected the constitutional rights of many.

Wally Funk, who flew to space at 82 after a lifetime of flying and fighting for women in aviation and aerospace, has passed away at age 87.

Born in Texas in 1939, Funk was determined to take to the skies, flying as a teenager and becoming a professional aviator at the tender age of 20. Her dreams extended even beyond Earth, and in 1961 she joined the "Mercury 13" group of women who completed the testing given to NASA's male astronauts. But Funk was the only Mercury 13 alum to ever reach space. After a lifetime of flying, in July 2021, the then 82-year-old Funk launched to suborbital space aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard vehicle, a trip that she described as "incredible."

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Wally Funk," Blue Origin shared in a statement on X on Thursday (July 9). "Wally was a pioneer in every sense of the word … On NS-16, sixty years later, Wally made history as the oldest astronaut at the time and remains the oldest woman to ever fly to space. It was a moment six decades in the making. We were humbled to be part of her journey. Her story will continue to inspire generations of future explorers. Fly Wally, Fly."

Making space history

Funk's spaceflight was historic in every sense of the word. "I've been waiting a long time to finally get up there," she said during a livestreamed postflight briefing at the time. "I've done a lot of astronaut training through the world — Russia, America … I could always beat the guys on what they were doing, because I was always stronger. I've always done everything on my own."

At the time of her spaceflight, Funk was the oldest person to ever go to space. But she was also the only member of the Mercury 13 to ever make it there. Funk joined the group, officially called the "Women in Space" program, as its youngest member at only 21 years old. Led by physician William Lovelace, the program put a group of young women through the same rigorous physical and mental testing as NASA's male astronauts to see how they would fare. And, across the board, the group either kept pace with or even excelled by comparison.

While the program didn't have official government sponsorship, there was hope that success could pave the way for women to be allowed into the human spaceflight program. (NASA astronauts were all male at the time; the agency didn't select a female astronaut candidate until 1978.) And in a way, it did, though it took far longer than the group likely expected.

Despite the group not leading to spaceflight access for women at the time, the participants proved their capability beyond doubt. In one particular test, participants were submerged in a sensory deprivation tank, a test meant to measure a participant's mental fortitude. While famed NASA astronaut John Glenn — who became the first American to orbit Earth — lasted three hours in the tank, Funk stayed in for a whopping 10 hours and 35 minutes.

'Married to airplanes'

Though Funk was quite young when she joined the Mercury 13, she'd already racked up years of aviation experience and an impressive array of accomplishments. In fact, Funk, who never married, famously said that she was "married to airplanes."

From her teenage experience with the "Flying Susies," Funk found her way to the skies as early as possible. And following her participation in the Mercury 13 program, Funk became the first female civilian flight instructor at a U.S. military base. Her aviation career was storied; she served as the National Transportation Safety Board's first female Air Safety Investigator, competed in air races and was even chief pilot for multiple aviation schools across the country, sharing her knowledge and expertise with countless aviation hopefuls.

But while she continued to make history and pursue her passions in aviation, her love for space never dwindled. When NASA finally began accepting women into the astronaut corps in the late 1970s, Funk was quick to apply. She applied three separate times but was denied on each occasion. Despite these setbacks, she remained close to the space world, even attending a launch with fellow former Mercury 13 members in 1995 to see NASA astronaut Eileen Collins lift off as the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.

A dream, realized

With her spaceflight dream still aflame, Funk was once again quick to act when Blue Origin got New Shepard fully up on running. And on July 20, 2021, Funk finally realized this lifelong goal, on the first-ever crewed flight of the suborbital spacecraft. (Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos was on that flight as well, along with his brother Mark, Funk and Dutch student Oliver Daemen.)

In thinking of her many aviation students, she said at the time, "I don't know if they're going to get to see this or not … but I felt so charged. I was just a normal person going up into space."

Funk will be remembered for her passion, her dedication and her many accomplishments across aviation and aerospace, which will continue to inspire aviators for generations to come.

Mid-spacewalk, one NASA astronaut had to take a moment to show off his muscles.

What is it?

NASA astronaut Chris Williams recently left the confines of the International Space Station for a 7-hour-and-20-minute spacewalk with fellow astronaut Jessica Meir. This was Williams' second spacewalk and Meir's fifth.

In a moment of fun, Williams flexed his muscles for a photo snapped by Meir during the strenuous spacewalk. With a big grin on his face, visible even through his spacesuit helmet, Williams raised his arms in a classic Muscle Beach pose as planet Earth glowed hundreds of miles beneath him.

But the pair of astronauts weren't playing around in space; this spacewalk had a serious purpose. On June 30, Williams and Meir ventured into the void to replace a wrist joint on the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm that had been malfunctioning.

Canadarm2 has been operating for over 25 years, so it makes sense that every once in a while it needs a repair or upgrade. After making this swap, the old wrist joint will be sent back to Earth to be fixed in case it needs to be used as backup in the future.

Why is it incredible?

Williams' demeanor in this photo makes it seem like spacewalks are fun, or even easy. But his smile and playful pose for the camera are a major contrast to the incredible strength, stamina and careful work that it takes to complete a spacewalk.

From preparation to suiting up, and doing incredibly precise work with a spacesuit on while floating in the vacuum of space while tethered to the space station, spacewalks are incredibly hard work. Williams may have been having a fun moment with Meir showing off in this photo, but the pair of astronauts were certainly using their muscles to get a tough job done.

As we reflect on this past July 4 weekend, and America's 250th birthday, we look to NASA's Artemis II astronauts, who recently reflected on their historic mission during a visit to Capitol Hill.

What is it?

Following their return to Earth from a 10-day journey around the moon in April, NASA's Artemis II astronauts headed to Capitol Hill.

This photograph, captured on May 12, shows the crew — from left to right, NASA astronauts Christina Koch (mission specialist), Victor Glover (mission pilot), Reid Wiseman (mission commander) and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist) — showing off a photo from their mission to congressional staff at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. In the photo, the four astronauts are wearing what look like eclipse glasses in the Orion capsule that they rode to space and back.

The presentation was part of a larger visit by the astronauts, who went to Capitol Hill to speak with U.S. politicians and staff about their mission.

Why is it incredible?

NASA's Artemis II mission had a profound impact on the public. The first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program, and the first mission to the moon since the Apollo program ended over 50 years ago, Artemis II was a big step forward in human spaceflight.

But its success went well beyond the mission itself. The public really connected with the astronauts, and this mission seemed to ignite a fresh, new excitement about space overall.

In going to Capitol Hill and speaking with policymakers, the astronauts were able to share some of the experiences that the public connected to so deeply. For federal funding and support of science and spaceflight activities to continue, it's important for policymakers to understand what happens in space, and on these missions, and the many benefits that can come from even a single flight.

Did a flying saucer just land at NASA? It sure looks like it.

This is actually the weather cover for the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is currently gearing up to launch the Artemis 3 mission in mid-2027.

What is it?

Aboard NASA's Pegasus barge, floating out in the Atlantic ocean, sits what looks like a classic, sci-fi movie UFO flying saucer. With some flashing lights, this thing flying around in the sky would cause quite a commotion. But it's actually a critical piece of hardware for NASA's Artemis program returning humans to the moon.

The Pegasus barge is a large cargo ship — it's a whopping 310 feet (94.4 meters) long — designed to carry the massive core stage of NASA's SLS megarocket. As the agency marches forward with its plans for Artemis 3, a crewed flight to low Earth orbit that will serve as a key test ahead of future missions to the moon, the SLS prepares for launch.

Once stacked on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, this flying saucer will actually serve as a weather cover, protecting the rocket's core stage and its thermal systems from the often turbulent and unpredictable weather on the Space Coast.

Why is it incredible?

It is always fun when science fiction and science fact meet. The design of this weather cover could not be closer to the flying saucer designs that have flown across screens in sci-fi flicks for the 1950s and '60s to today. It's interesting to wonder whether these familiar images of flying saucers somehow inspired this functional design.

But however inspiration struck, this weather cover will serve an incredible purpose. It will shield the rocket's core stage, the tallest rocket stage NASA has ever built, which holds hundreds of thousands of gallons of propellant and supports the weight of the rocket's upper stage, payload, and the Orion crew capsule. The safety of the Artemis astronauts and the success of these missions depend on the rocket launching perfectly, and every single piece, including this weather cover, are part of ensuring that success.

It's unclear when Boeing will be able to send more astronauts to the International Space Station, a new NASA audit warns.

Technical issues with Boeing Starliner's spacecraft, across two uncrewed flights and a two-astronaut test mission known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), come under scrutiny in a new report about NASA's Commercial Crew Program from the agency's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

"Many of these [Starliner] issues are related to three longstanding technical challenges that have prevented Boeing from obtaining the human-rating certification — helium leaks, propulsion systems failures and parachute anomalies," states the OIG report, which was released today (June 30).

"The helium leaks and propulsion systems failures remain unresolved as of March 2026, and NASA is uncertain as to when this testing will be completed or human-rating certification for the Starliner will be obtained," the report adds.

The NASA OIG performed the audit to evaluate the performance of both companies that NASA contracted to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The auditor found that NASA will need to purchase more flights from those vendors, SpaceX and Boeing, "to continue to fully crew the ISS through 2030," and offered feedback on how the two companies have been doing so far.

SpaceX has been flying astronauts successfully since 2020 and is readying to send its 13th operational crewed mission (known as Crew-13) to the orbiting complex in September. Boeing, however, has just one astronaut flight under its belt — CFT, which launched in June 2024 and encountered multiple problems, resulting in NASA having to bring the two astronauts back home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule instead of Starliner.

Starliner has therefore not been certified to fly astronauts yet. The company has decided that the capsule's next mission will be uncrewed, and there is not yet a launch date for it.

NASA ultimately reclassified Starliner's first crewed flight as a Type A mishap, the most serious type in human spaceflight, in February 2026. The fact that it took 21 months for the agency to do so is concerning, according to both the OIG and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel for NASA.

OIG said "ambiguity" in NASA requirements for a Type A mishap led to this gap, which also induced "delays, increased costs and potential performance and safety issues on future flights," according to the new report.

The authors added that underperformance on CFT can be traced to NASA's overconfidence in the spacecraft design, "unrealistic launch and flight test schedules" made by Boeing and accepted by NASA, and "pressure to adhere to this aggressive schedule." And these issues were compounded by NASA not exercising "data rights," which would have let the agency look at "flight-simulation-training failures" that likely would have helped with crew safety ahead of launch.

"Going forward, NASA's ongoing workforce constraints may further hinder oversight, resolution of technical issues, and flight certification schedules," the OIG report states, alluding to effects that the auditor foresees from budget-related workforce cutbacks at NASA.

The bulk of the report discusses Starliner, but SpaceX also had "a variety of its own technical challenges" in the earlier days of the Dragon program, OIG noted. That said, SpaceX has helped NASA deal with Boeing's delays, while collecting "$17 million in additional costs to accelerate spaceflights originally planned for the Starliner," the OIG noted.

NASA concurred with all of OIG's recommendations to the agency going forward, which are:

• Delay payments to Boeing until Starliner's human-rating certification completes;
• Create a schedule with Boeing for the next Starliner flights;
• Document and resolve all of the CFT issues in "NASA's mishap information system" and update the schedule for Starliner with these issues in mind;
• Make private company flight-simulation testing on hardware and software changes accessible to NASA;
• Make NASA's mishap-classification requirements more clear;
• Prioritize NASA hiring efforts to focus on "critical skillsets" related to commercial crew and to the expected decommissioning of the ISS.

BOULDER, Colorado — After Earth's moon and Mars, where could humans plant their footprints?

The "Humans to Titan Summit 2026" was held here on June 11 and June 12 to explore the concept of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, as the next human exploration destination, post-Mars.

Researchers looked into how demanding such a trek could be and what would be required to make it, along with next steps to further that ambitious goal.

Normalizing the idea

As a first-of-its-kind gathering of experts, the Humans to Titan Summit 2026 was invigorating, taking seriously the prospect of one day sending humans to Titan, said Amanda Hendrix, director of the Planetary Science Institute, which is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.

Hendrix is also president of the advocacy group Explore Titan and co-author of "Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets" (Pantheon Books, 2016).

"Everyone recognizes that the reality of this is a long way off," Hendrix told Space.com, "but normalizing the idea   — that Titan is actually a very reasonable destination for humans  — is important."

Taking this goal seriously means that "we can have a next destination in our minds, after Mars," she added. "That keeps the momentum going."

Dense atmosphere

The assembly of experts explored an array of Titan topics, from spacesuits and modes of transportation, habitat designs and airlock concepts to light levels and possible encounters with monsoons and floods on the frigid, exotic moon, which has a weather system based on hydrocarbons rather than water.

Additionally, making use of Titan as a hub for launching sample-return missions to other moons within the Saturn system, like Enceladus, was viewed as a big plus.

So too was utilizing the moon's rich bounty of resources — like methane, nitrogen and oxygen — to fuel expansive, far-deeper exploration beyond Titan itself.

"We've got a lot of planning to do," said Hendrix, "but we have time!"

A top priority is figuring out how to either shorten the trip time to Titan or accommodate it and mitigate the negative effects on astronauts, Hendrix said.

"The top reason in my mind that Titan is such a good spot for humans is the dense atmosphere," Hendrix said. That nitrogen-dominated atmosphere provides natural shielding from harmful radiation of many types.

Precursor missions

Appreciation of what human visitors will face on the moon was boosted by the European Space Agency's robotic Huygens probe, which touched down on Titan on Jan. 14, 2005 as part of the NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.

Next up for setting down on Titan is NASA's nuclear-powered Dragonfly, now projected to launch no earlier than 2028 for a six-year voyage to the faraway moon.

During its over three-year surface mission, Dragonfly's rotors will carry it for miles across Titan's surface, auto-piloting its way to a variety of areas. The vehicle is designed to snag samples of surface material for analysis inside the rotorcraft by scientific instruments.

Extraordinarily ambitious

Taking part in the two-day gathering was Scot Rafkin, director of the Department of Space Studies at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and a planetary and atmospheric scientist. The summit was held at SwRI's Solar System Science & Exploration Division facilities.

"Everyone recognized that sending humans to Titan is extraordinarily ambitious. But history shows that the greatest achievements in exploration begin when people are willing to pursue goals that seem beyond reach," said Rafkin. Sharing with Space.com his own personal thoughts, he said the summit marked "the beginning of a long-term effort to imagine and ultimately achieve something transformative."

Titan is one of the most compelling worlds in the solar system, Rafkin said; it's a place with rivers, lakes, weather, dunes and complex chemistry unlike anywhere else we know of. Pursuing human exploration of Titan, he said, creates a long-term framework and provides a scientific purpose that transcends the moon and Mars.

'Not a question of physics'

Rafkin said that targeting Titan will also accelerate technologies needed not only for exploring that moon but for voyaging throughout the solar system.

"Human exploration of Titan is not a question of physics," said Rafkin. "It is a question of time, technology, and commitment. We understand most of the major challenges. We know many of the critical science and engineering gaps that remain."

Every advance in propulsion, power systems, manufacturing, robotics, computing, life support and communications, Rafkin said, brings Titan closer while simultaneously enabling exploration throughout the solar system.

Not every solution exists today, Rafkin continued, but the path forward is increasingly clear.

Starting a movement

"Some steps can be taken now, such as sending an orbiter to better characterize the Titan system," said Rafkin. "Other capabilities will require decades or even generations of development. The challenge is immense, but it is achievable."

Rafkin said that the summit was not about planning a mission.

"It was about starting a movement. If space exploration has taught us anything, it is that ambitious goals accelerate innovation in ways we cannot fully predict. The destination is Titan, but the investment is in ourselves," Rafkin concluded.

A second Humans to Titan Summit, said Hendrix, is slated around the launch date in 2028 of the NASA Dragonfly mission.

LOS ANGELES — The space shuttle Endeavour is absolutely breathtaking in its 20-story new home at the California Science Center's brand-new Air & Space Center, which is set to open on Nov. 13, the museum announced on Wednesday (June 24).

After over three decades of ideation, development and construction, the California Science Center has officially announced an opening date for its brand-new Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center, which will feature the space shuttle Endeavour. On Wednesday, I got to peek behind the curtain to see Endeavour's new home inside the center, where it stands in a "ready to launch" position, towering at nearly 200 feet (61 meters) tall — a truly spectacular focal point. The shuttle is even complete with real solid rocket boosters and the last flight-qualified external fuel tank (ET-94).

"It's been a lot of years to get here, and it's a dream come true," Lynda Oschin, the chairman of the board and secretary of the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation, told Space.com about this massive exhibition finally coming together.

"They're going to be in tears, they're going to be shaking, and they're going to be proud," Oschin added, referring to how she expects guests to react to Endeavour in its new home. And having just seen it for the first time in all its glory, standing upright with its fuel tank and rocket boosters seemingly ready to launch, I can attest: She is absolutely right.

Before you even step foot into the shuttle room, there is a short video that is played that takes you through the history of the shuttle program while bringing to life the fiery excitement of a shuttle launch. In a dramatic cloud of smoke, the shuttle room is revealed and there isn't a single person who isn't in absolute awe. Endeavour is hypnotizing. With the boosters and fuel tank, its already massive stature becomes almost larger than life.

A walkway takes you all the way around the shuttle, which is open on one side so you can clearly peer into its many layers, seeing wires and other details. You can also walk down to a lower floor, where you can stand underneath the shuttle and inspect it from every angle you might want. And surrounding the shuttle itself are a variety of interactive exhibits like a shuttle landing simulator (good luck), the tires from Endeavour's final landing, and more.

"I'm a child of the Apollo era, and I remember having a plastic Apollo Saturn V rocket that I carried with me everywhere, and that was after going to Johnson Space Center, visiting the space center there," retired NASA astronaut John "Danny" Olivas told Space.com. "inspiration happens through exposure, and there's nothing, I think, more impressive than standing next to the space shuttle stacked the way that they've done here at the California Science Center."

And Endeavour is special in this respect: No other museum has a space shuttle orbiter that's mounted vertically, in the launch position.

One aspect of the California Science Center that stands out is its accessibility, as the museum (including the brand-new air and space center) is entirely free to the public — and it's on the metro line, which kids in L.A. can ride for free. Many museums and similar institutions strive for and value accessibility, and this center really takes that to heart, keeping even new installations like the shuttle free to visit. "California Science Center has opened up accessibility for inspiration to the next generation of space explorers," Olivas said.

And while NASA moves forward with its Artemis moon program, Olivas, who flew on two shuttle missions (STS-128 and STS 117), is confident that the lessons and history of the space shuttle program will carry on in inspiring that next generation.

"One of the things that really touches my heart about the space shuttle program is that it ushered in an age of diversity in space exploration that we had not seen prior," Olivas said. "We got an opportunity to see so many firsts — so many firsts of Americans being able to see themselves in the astronauts that flew in space, and that opened the door to so many people like myself, recognizing that wow, yeah, I can become an astronaut."

The new Air & Space Center was first imagined as part of a museum expansion plan all the way back in 1993. Over 30 years later, the futuristic building stands a whopping 20 stories tall to accommodate the towering Endeavour, which immediately grabs the focus of anyone walking into the building.

After NASA's space shuttle program ended in 2011, the agency worked to turn itsretired shuttles into museum attractions. Endeavour first arrived at the California Science Center in October of 2012. Thousands watched as the spacecraft rolled through the streets of Los Angeles on the back of a slow-crawling transporter, a 12-mile (19 kilometers) trek from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center that took the craft 68 hours.

Four years later, in 2016, ET-94, the shuttle's external fuel tank, arrived. And seven years after that, in 2023, two solid rocket boosters arrived and the shuttle was taken off display, where it had sat for over a decade, as preparations began for its new home in the Air & Space Center.

"Now, with the stunning display of Endeavour in launch configuration, the Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center will give us a clear, greater platform than ever before to accomplish our mission to stimulate curiosity and inspire science learning in everyone," said Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center. This "will be the only place in the world to see a complete space shuttle system, with the flown orbiter Endeavour mated to real solid rocket boosters and the only remaining flight-qualified external tank, ET-94."

While Endeavour is the clear centerpiece of the building, the Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center will be chock-full of a wide variety of other space artifacts. The building is split into three sections that guests will be able to explore: air, space and shuttle. Relics from throughout spaceflight history, interactive exhibits, and immersive, educational experiences fill the space. Currently, 1.6 million people visit the California Science Center each year, so even if this number were to remain the same, this building has to be ready for a big and diverse crowd from around the world.

One new mission is setting out to study menstruation in microgravity for the first time ever.

Forty-six years ago, NASA engineers asked Sally Ride if 100 tampons was the right amount to send with her for a six-day spaceflight. Though people laugh at that fact today, there has still never been any scientific study dedicated to studying menstruation in space. But a non-profit called Operation Period aims to change that. Led by Gen-Z researchers, this non-profit works to provide what its founder Manju Bangalore calls "menstrual freedom," which she says would mean everyone can have easy access to menstrual products. Meanwhile, the organization also aims to tackle the wider issues that leave people without such access in the first place. With its upcoming suborbital mission Operation Period-01 (OP-01), this ambitious team is taking their cause into microgravity. On OP-01, the mission's founder will launch to space to conduct the research themselves on a Virgin Galactic suborbital flight in 2027.

In conducting their work here on Earth, Operation Period found that "there were still some of those same gaps in spaceflight medicine," Manju Bangalore, the founder and executive director of Operation Period and research astronaut in training for OP-01, told Space.com. " I want all menstruators to be able to live life with their full dignity and reach their fullest potential, and that includes astronauts."

With a background in physics and astronomical engineering as well as with training in bioastronautics and having spent time working at NASA, Bangalore brings her love of space to this cause. She and Priya Abiram, the Director of Research at Operation Period's Redshift Lab, feel so strongly about their message, even 9 years since the pair founded their non-profit; in fact, with this mission, the two will become some of the youngest South Asian women to travel to space.

"On a personal level, I've always been fascinated by space and human space exploration. It's what's always excited me as a child, and I've kept that curiosity going," Bangalore said. "I didn't think those two missions would ever combine into this. It wasn't something I ever planned, but I'm very grateful to lead this historic mission to advance menstrual health in this way."

And just as this team is excited to bring their research into a suborbital environment, Virgin Galactic is excited to be expanding the range of microgravity science the non-profit supports. "This mission with Operation Period is a powerful example of how Virgin Galactic can continue to support real-time, in-flight scientific investigation into long-overlooked areas of human health, helping advance more inclusive and innovative exploration that delivers insight for both space and life on Earth," Virgin Galactic director of system analysis & research Amber Favaregh said in an emailed statement.

Recently, Operation Period expanded to include a research wing, and this mission will be conducted under that umbrella. The team was not yet able to share specific details on the exact protocol that will be conducted during the mission, information they said will be shared at a date closer to launch, but they did share the current issues that this research aims to begin to address.

Currently, astronauts typically choose to fully suppress their periods during their spaceflights, through hormonal IUDs or oral contraceptive pills. While that is a choice astronauts might continue to make in the future, without data to show the reality of dealing with a period in space, astronauts are left with fewer choices with their own bodies. Comprehensive data on menstruation in space will also be important if astronauts are to complete longer spaceflights or even extended stays on the moon. While the mission has not yet revealed its priorities and exactly what data it will collect, with such limited data on menstruation in space, there is a lot of knowledge to be gained.

While "the data that we have, although limited, says that it is generally safe to menstruate, in terms of long duration missions, we don't have quantitative data," Bangalore said. "We don't have enough data to continue to assist with patient resource allocation for mission planners."

Historic missteps like the "100 questions" moment with Sally Ride highlight an issue that could have big effects on future, longer-term missions. Sure, having a ridiculous number of backup products would ensure that there is no need unaddressed, mass considerations for spaceflight are extremely serious and future missions will need to have better data to know what will be needed in a microgravity environment.

And just like with other science in space, the research conducted in microgravity will also be used on Earth. The pair aim to collect menstruation data that will benefit astronauts as well as people back on our home planet. .

"I think on Earth, there's a lot of gaps right now in menstrual health research," Bangalore said. As just one example, she cited recent findings that menstrual product companies were reporting incorrect absorbency of their products because they were testing products with saline, which is very different from menstrual blood. "This was potentially leading to doctors to underdiagnosed heavy menstrual bleeding, which right now the stats say affects 20% of American menstruators," Bangalore said.

With this being the first mission of its kind, OP-01 will not answer every question that remains about menstruation and space, but it will bring data to a conversation decades in the making. "Our hope is to continue to iterate this research so that we can do future suborbital flights, as well as orbital flights, to continue to create larger data sets," Bangalore said. "I think the point of preliminary studies is to be able to know what questions to ask in the future, so we don't expect that this suborbital flight will solve everything or create all the data that we need, right, but we hope that this will be a good stepping stone."

Momentum for this research was actually sparked by many millions of views on a viral social media video in which Bangalore conducted an early version of a menstrual fluid dynamic experiment in a low-gravity environment aboard a parabolic flight.

This viral moment "ended up being a really cool kind of 'in' to continue talking about destigmatizing periods," she said. "Through that, I got to talk more about the gaps in spaceflight medicine, in terms of menstrual health."

The titular cosmonaut training facility in Apple TV's "Star City" is a hive of duplicity, all scrutinized by the KGB's surveillance team and its small army of monitoring minions.

One of the main couples in Apple TV's Soviet-centered spinoff of their flagship alt-history series, "For All Mankind," is portrayed by Ruby Ashbourne Serkis and Adam Nagaitis, who are perfectly cast as Tanya and Valya Mironov. Valya is one of the Soviet Union's primary cosmonauts whose Luna 16 command mission in Sept. of 1969 lands the first woman on the lunar surface, Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert).

But the Mironovs have more than a few secrets of their own as they struggle to stay out of the way of Star City’s prying eyes and ears, monitoring every word and whisper. We connected with Serkis and Nagaitis to hear much more about the core of their connected characters, embracing the essence of late ‘60s and early ‘70s Soviet culture, and playing a married pair under the pressures of the communist regime.

"What I like most about Valya, without any spoilers, is that his internal world was fascinating to me," Nagaitis tells Space. "He’s resilient and dedicated, and he's specific and reliable, and those things are useful for an actor because it gives you a focal point, which is always a good thing."

For Serkis (and yes, she is the daughter of "The Lord of the Rings" star Andy Serkis), there's a certain measure of love and sympathy for Tanya that provides an emotional cushion.

"I have a real soft spot for her, and I feel really sorry for her," she reveals. "I think she's someone who craves freedom and expression and connectivity, and her life at Star City is slightly devoid of that. So she has to seek out what she can in order to make it happen for herself

"I like her place in the show", continues Serkis. "I don't think I have the mental capacity to play a scientist. I’ve always seen her as representative of the Soviet wife and the dreams and hopes and ambitions that young women have growing up that would have been dashed and sacrificed with a husband. I like that she’s solid and she’s humanity, and I love that they include her amidst all the space.

"I think it's a really interesting environment to delve into. Ultimately, it's a culture of survival. As terrible and harrowing as things were, people just had to get on with it. And that was something that was useful to try and click into."

Stepping into the skin of a daring cosmonaut raised under that harsh, oppressive environment required more than a little thought as to how that would feel for Nagaitis’s conflicted spacefaring character.

"I read a lot about the Soviet Union, and it's easy to just attach to some Orwellian idea and say, 'okay all my rights and freedoms have been impinged and now what do I do,'" he explains. "That’s a completely useless thing for me because now I’m a dissident. Now I’m feeling things Valya didn’t feel. Valya grew up in this situation. All of his childhood memories are about the Soviet Union, which is what 'Secondhand Time' is about, that book we were all so fond of."

The book in question, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, is an oral history of the Soviet Union and its ultimate end, which became required reading for many of the cast. "It became an important mast for us to remember how deep the double-think and double-speak goes," notes Nagaitis.

“When I think of loving a country — which to me is a bizarre and slightly absurd notion — I can love memories of a way of life, I suppose. I can love stories that people have told me about things. So how did Valya love that? What were Valya’s stories of love that he holds in his memory and that he associates with people? Because everything is people. A country is nothing if it isn’t people."

“Star City” season 1 is streaming now exclusively on Apple TV, with new episodes dropping every Friday.

"For All Mankind's" new spinoff, "Star City," is a certified hit and another brilliant gem in Apple TV’s imposing crown of science fiction shows that includes "Foundation," "Silo," "Pluribus," and "Invasion." Viewers finally get to see the Space Race from the Soviet perspective inside the heavily guarded walls of the secret cosmonaut training city.

Created by Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, "Star City" is nearing the midpoint of its 8-episode inaugural season and its dark and enthralling peek within the heart of the USSR’s space program. We chatted with two of its stars, Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays Star City's chilling KGB security commander, Col. Lyudmilla Raskova, and Agnes O’Casey, who portrays her surveillance department protege Irina Morozova (whom we've seen as an older woman in "For All Mankind"), to learn more about absorbing the cold atmosphere of 1970s life behind the Iron Curtain.

"I have loved playing someone who’s so eccentric, because she's got such a lid on things and trying so hard to control everything about herself, that her impulses that do come up are so strong and so left of field at times," O’Casey tells Space. "Like maybe torturing someone.

"We're both very lucky with the characters we've got to play. The way that Matt and Ben write, we're just people. It doesn’t feel too gendered. It's not a big deal that they’re women in their fields. They're just sort of surviving and ruthless. It's a really exciting script to get to work on."

Martin's transformation into the monstrous KGB surveillance chief and decorated World War II veteran is a remarkable achievement, and the actor is relishing her part.

"I love playing Lyudmilla, she's an absolute hoot," Martin reveals before discussing her research process for the role. "I didn't look at fiction. I think we both kind of read about that period of time, that history. There’s a book we both delved into, which was a sort of verbatim account of people living in the Soviet Union, and that gave you a flavor of what it was like to be a Soviet person. I also read a book about — it wasn’t a gulag, but it was a female prison — and that was a pretty awful book. Mind you, there’s female prisons everywhere, but that wasn’t a very jolly book."

In terms of costumes helping to achieve an authenticity from which to establish their personas, O'Casey and Martin ponder the questions of wardrobe choices and the necessity of whether or not to break character once the cameras stopped rolling.

"If Irina is completely disembodied, I think she'd like to be in trousers and flats, but she dresses the part and wears her pencil skirts," O’Casey adds. "She’s not thinking about fashion. Her life is as convenient as it can be. She’s wearing a costume and not thinking about how she looks. We would’ve had a terrible time if we'd stayed in character. We would have crawled home."

Martin's crowded schedule of off-screen tasks gave her ample excuses to step away from Lyudmilla’s brutal regimen of torture, and she was not going to wear a skirt!

"I'm too busy doing things like organizing transport for my children, locating their whereabouts, doing online shopping, and seeing if the dog has been walked that day," she notes. "So I can’t possibly stay in character, and I couldn’t do those things as Lyudmilla. I could, and actually, if I did those things as Lyudmilla, they might be done more efficiently, actually, now thinking on that.

"I really pushed and was insistent that I was not to be in a skirt. And I think at first Matt and Ben were like, 'Uh, she’s in a skirt.' She’s not, she's in trousers. And I fought really hard for that, as did Nicole [Fischnaller], our head of costume. Lyudmilla was a tank commander, I just don’t think she’d be wafting around in a skirt. I wanted her to feel genderless. I had a furry hat at one point that I also fought for. In hindsight, now that I see it on the big screen, I think maybe it was a mistake."

"Star City" season 1 streams exclusively on Apple TV.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir captured a breathtaking view of auroras on Earth from orbit while sheltering with her fellow astronauts in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as a pair of cosmonauts attempted to fix a concerning air leak on the International Space Station.

What is it?

Last week on Friday, June 5, the four Crew-12 astronauts on the ISS took shelter in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that carried them to the station. They did this as a precaution as cosmonauts attempted to fix a leak in a tunnel leading to a Russian module.

But Meir made good use of her temporary surroundings, capturing truly incredible images (and even video) of auroras over Earth from the Dragon.

"There is a lot going on right now on the @Space_Station, but fortunately we are all safe and witnessed a spectacular southern aurora show yesterday thanks to a recent solar event," Meir said in a post on X.

Why is it incredible?

While these images, and the video that Meir shared are stunning on their own, the context behind their capture is fascinating. Meir wasn't just in the Dragon capsule for fun, her and the rest of the Crew-12 astronauts were told to shelter in the capsule as the cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, attempted to fix an ongoing leak on the station.

They hunkered down "out of an abundance of caution," according to NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens, while two cosmonauts went out on a spacewalk to attempt to fix an air leak on the station.

This has been a persistent, ongoing leak caused by cracks in the PrK transfer tunnel which connects to the Russian Zvezda service module. But while Russia's space agency Roscosmos manages the leak with occasional repairs, according to Stevens, the leak started presenting as more of an issue recently.

A former Paralympic athlete could end up breaking some records in the final frontier.

The U.K. government and the California company Vast have signed an agreement that aims to get John McFall, a reserve astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA), on a research mission aboard Vast's Haven-1 space station.

McFall, 45, is a surgeon with the United Kingdom's National Health Service who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 19. He won a bronze medal in the 100-meter dash at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Vast is developing a line of Haven outposts, and Haven-1 is set to be the first in low Earth orbit (LEO). It will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as soon as next year.

The newly signed memorandum of understanding is not a guarantee that McFall will fly to Haven-1. Rather, it "will see the U.K. Space Agency support Vast to secure sponsorships to fund a spaceflight for John," U.K. officials wrote in a June 2 statement announcing the agreement.

If McFall does indeed get to fly, he will work on research related to physiology, as well as prosthetics and movement in space. The U.K. government noted that his work could directly benefit millions of people, and also further ESA's goal of expanding access to space, as well as Europe's role in enabling private interests to work in LEO.

"The findings could have significant benefits for disabled people here on Earth, such as the design of lighter, more adaptable prosthetics on Earth," U.K. officials wrote in the statement. "They could also deepen our understanding of conditions like osteoporosis or muscle wastage that affect many disabled people and provide new insights into rehabilitation techniques for amputees."

"Signing this agreement with Vast is incredibly exciting," McFall said in the announcement. "If we can make this mission happen, it won't just be a milestone for human spaceflight, it will send a powerful message about what people with disabilities are capable of, and that there should be no limit to what you can achieve — on Earth or in space."

U.K. Space Minister Liz Lloyd said that McFall's history of accomplishments in sports, medicine and science show his extraordinary determination.

"The UK is committed to being at the forefront of inclusive human spaceflight," Lloyd said in the same announcement. "This builds on the groundbreaking work John has already done and opens the door to a genuine flight opportunity. I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together."

Vast also made some other news recently: The company signed a two-mission deal with the government of France, to fly one French astronaut to the ISS and another to Haven-1.

New York — This weekend, I watched as Prada and Axiom Space unveiled the next-generation Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment for astronauts on the moon. This is a critical piece of Axiom's new AxEMU spacesuits the company is designing with Prada for NASA's Artemis lunar missions. And it comes complete with stirrup pants and thumb holes.

High fashion hit the Artemis program when designer fashion house Prada and aerospace company Axiom teamed up to create AxEMU, the spacesuits that NASA astronauts will be wearing on the moon. And in a reveal on Sunday (June 7), we finally got a look at the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG for short).

"This is the garment that astronauts wear inside the suit," Axiom Space Senior Vice President Russell Ralston told Space.com during a press event at Prada on June 7. "It provides them comfort, cooling, and those kinds of things ... really proud of the design."

Checking out the design

The LCVG looks like a really cool piece of activewear. From the v-neck to the thumbhole sleeves, throwback stirrup pants, tech-y tubing and Prada's signature red stripe, this thing looks cool. But it does a lot more than look cool.

"It's not oftentimes that astrophysics [and] aeronautics develops things that are aesthetically pleasing," Axiom Space CEO and President Jonathan Cirtain said at the event. But, he added, "while aesthetically pleasing, this is a safety suit ... it's a really remarkable piece of technology."

The garment is made with built-in channels in which small tubes carrying cooling liquid are placed. These tubes will circulate this liquid around the suit, providing temperature control. This design is an upgrade on previous designs which have had such tubes threaded through mesh material, a time-consuming task, Ralston said. The suit also has larger, black tubes that carry air first over the wearer's face and then around the body, "providing carbon dioxide management as they exhale, and providing oxygen back to the astronauts as they inhale," according to Cirtain.

The garment is intended for use by future moonwalking astronauts, though Cirtain noted that it might be tested first with astronauts onboard the International Space Station, and some testing might even occur with NASA's upcoming Artemis 3 mission, though this mission will not land astronauts on the lunar surface.

This new garment (and modified iterations of the garment and spacesuit) have gone through a variety of temperature, gravity, and other environmental testing. In addition to possible ISS testing time, the suit is also likely to be tested in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (the giant swimming pool where astronauts practice for space).

AxEMU along with its undersuit the LCVG isn't just the newest moon-bound spacesuit, it has major improvements over the Apollo spacesuits, the last suits to protect humans on the lunar surface. And this is for good reason. Not only has there been significant technological progress in the 54 years since the final Apollo moon mission in 1972, but the Artemis 4 mission (the first Artemis mission slated to land humans on the moon) will send astronauts to the lunar South Pole, which is notably colder than previously explored regions on the moon.

The moon's South Pole where Artemis astronauts will land is "a very complex environment, and so there's a lot of interesting upgrades we've made to what's been available in the past," Cirtain told Space.com during this press event.

"The South Pole is not always in sunlight; sometimes it's in shadow," Cirtain added, "The temperature differential from sunlight to shadow can be over 400 degrees [Fahrenheit]."

In addition to being more technologically advanced to both keep with the times and contend with the extreme lunar environments, the pair also intend for these suits to fit better, possibly offering bespoke fits for each astronaut, and also be easier to customize than previous spacesuits. They intend to accomplish this using a combination of Prada's existing manufacturing practices and by making the suits modular, so individual components could be both uniquely sized and individually swapped out, a more economical process than swapping out an entire suit.

"I think that that's something that's important for this new era of spaceflight, where we want to see thousands and millions of people go to space," Ralston told Space.com. "We can't keep doing things the way they were done in the past, that's not going to get us there."

While this is the first sight of the LCVG, this isn't our first look at the AxEMU spacesuit. Initial reveals showed the suit first in orange and blue to shield not-yet-revealed details, and then in its final coloration in bright white. This light color helps to reflect sunlight and heat, helping astronauts to maintain a comfortable body temperature, and the white material also makes lunar dust very visible, allowing astronauts to more easily keep track and dust off.

While Prada's involvement in spacesuit design might seem unusual, the pair appear to be in lock-step with not just the style, but the engineering of the suit as well. For example, Prada's materials expertise enabled them to contribute "the ballistic material on the outside of the suit," Cirtain told Space.com. This material allows the suit "to maintain its integrity and not tear while in that unique environment."

This fashion and aerospace partnership also follows in the footsteps of spacesuit history. When NASA set out to find the right contractors to work with on the Apollo spacesuits, they ended up working with ILC Dover, a small company in Delaware connected to famous bra maker Playtex. ILC Dover used their expert sewists and knowledge in materials like nylon to create a suit that astronauts could actually move around in, while Hamilton Standard (now Collins Aerospace) provided the life-support hardware to complete the suits.

Meteor showers are among the most beautiful phenomena to brighten Earth's sky, but could the fast moving space rocks that accompany major events threaten or delay future Artemis moon missions as NASA and its partners plan for a lunar landing attempt?

NASA estimates that approximately 48.5 tons (44,000 kilograms) of naturally occurring space debris falls into Earth's atmosphere each day. These fragments range in size from tiny micrometeoroids a fraction of a millimeter in diameter to larger particles that create spectacular shooting stars and fireballs as they burn up during atmospheric entry.

The space around Earth gets even more crowded during meteor showers, as Earth careens through one of the many debris streams continuously shed by asteroids and comets as they make lazy circuits around the sun.

Can micrometeoroids endanger a spacecraft?

Micrometeoroids travel through space at hypervelocity speeds averaging 22,000 miles per hour (34,405 kilometers per hour), according to NASA. At that pace, even a tiny micrometeoroid has the ability to impart a significant kinetic blow upon striking a spacecraft en route to the moon, with potentially disastrous results for the astronaut crew inside.

Fast moving debris has the potential to penetrate or deform a spacecraft's hull, damaging critical systems or even triggering a catastrophic rupture. There is also the risk that a micrometeoroid could punch a hole in one of the heat-resistant outer tiles on the Orion spacecraft, NASA's crew capsule for the agency's Artemis moon missions, undermining its ability to survive the intense furnace of reentry, per NASA.

The Chinese Space Agency was given a stark reminder of the dangers posed by space debris in November last year, when taikonaut Chen Dong discovered a crack in the viewport of his Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, which forced the three person crew to use a different return craft for their journey.

Thankfully, modern spacecraft such as the Orion capsule used for NASA's Artemis moon missions have been designed to mitigate the threat posed by micrometeoroid impacts, in so far as is possible. "Orion spacecraft material selection and thicknesses have been optimized for [micrometeoroid and orbital debris] (MMOD) protection and risk balancing," said Mike Heckwolf, Orion crew and mission risk integrator at Lockheed Martin's in an email to Space.com.

"Hypervelocity impact testing is conducted to confirm impact physics, to characterize damage survivability, and verify performance of the Orion spacecraft MMOD design," continued Heckwolf. "The Artemis mission trajectory and Orion flight attitude are carefully assessed to minimize MMOD risk."

Meteor storms and outbursts raise the stakes

As is so often the case, the best protection against disaster is prevention. NASA and its partners regularly perform risk assessments on the micrometeoroid environment both ahead of and during a mission, though only the most severe events present cause for concern.

"Only a handful of the more than 1,000 known meteor showers exceed the sporadic background by more than 5% — like the Geminids, for example — [which is] the strongest annual shower," explained NASA Meteoroid Environments Office lead Bill Cooke, in an email to Space.com.

The major mission disrupters come in the form of meteor storms and outbursts, which see a dramatic increase in the quantity of interplanetary debris choking the Earth-moon environment. "If a major meteor shower outburst or storm is forecast during a mission or crew activity, the mission would be delayed or the crew kept inside until the outburst or storm is over," said Cooke.

Storm forecasts on the horizon

Hundreds or even thousands of shooting stars may be seen burning through Earth's skies each hour during one of these intense meteor storm events, though the distance separating micrometeoroids in space would still likely be measured on the order of miles.

Thankfully, forecasters are able to predict when meteor storms or outbursts are likely to occur, many years before they brighten our skies.

"Currently there are four possible meteor outbursts predicted to occur during the next ten years," said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society in an email to Space.com. "These involve the Perseids (August 12, 2028) and the Leonids (November 17, 2033 and November 18 & 19, 2034. The strongest of these appears to be the Perseid outburst, which could range from 500 to 1000 meteors per hour."

Artemis 4 — NASA's first crewed mission to the lunar surface since the Apollo-era — is currently slated to launch in early 2028, though it's possible that an unforeseen delay could push that window backwards.

In the unlikely event that Artemis 4, or any subsequent mission's launch should fall close to a projected outburst, they could well be delayed in the name of safety, and it wouldn't be the first time that NASA has postponed a mission to ensure its success in the face of a micrometeoroid risk.

As noted by Cooke, the STS-51 space shuttle Discovery mission was delayed in 1993 to avoid the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, and an uncrewed science mission out of Vandenberg Space Force Base was delayed in 2000 to sidestep a Leonid meteor shower outburst.

The agency also has protocols in place to reduce the threat of micrometeoroid impacts to its flagship orbital telescopes during major meteor showers. The James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope, for example, routinely point their large primary mirrors away from meteor showers radiants (the points in space from which they originate) during intense events.

NASA's strategies for dealing with micrometeoroid impacts will be further tested in the coming decade, as the agency and its partners seek to establish a permanent presence on and around Earth's moon.

Would you like to know more? Then be sure to read our explainer article on NASA's Artemis Program, along with the latest on the agency's upcoming Artemis 3 mission to test vital technologies for the Artemis 4 landing near the lunar south pole.

In Soviet Russia, you don’t watch "Star City," "Star City" watches you!

Apple TV"s stellar spinoff of "For All Mankind" has blasted off to enthusiastic reviews with its first two episodes and we’re all being indoctrinated into the dehumanizing Cold War oppression and super-secret town near Moscow where cosmonauts and their families lived and worked under intense control.

Rhys Ifans, who plays the stoic Ser Otto Hightower on HBO's "House of the Dragon," portrays the Soviet space program’s Chief Designer in "Star City," a designation left intentionally anonymous due to the notoriously paranoid Russian regime of the era. It's based on the real-life father of the USSR’s push to the moon, Sergei Korolev, who died in 1966, ending their lunar mission plans. But he's alive in "Star City's" alt-history plot.

We connected with Ifans plus "Star City" co-creators and showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert ("Fargo") to learn more about the inspirations and production secrets behind this instantly-absorbing 8-episode show.

"It's always exciting for any actor to play a character that has obstacles," Ifans tells Space. "Obstacles are wonderful things. Things that make that character's life difficult are always the most pleasing things to play. In this story, in this world, that's the case for all the characters.

"From dawn until dusk, every waking moment is about navigating their way safely through a very very hostile environment. And how one does that while keeping one's own sense of ethics and morality intact, while by necessity sometimes having to behave in ways and make decisions that in a normal world you’d never have to make. Every day is a kind of moral labyrinth for these people. But they get on with it. And I think ultimately the show is a show about resilience."

Ifans considers the Chief Designer role to be a joyous character to play, and he brings a certain dignity, warmth and keen intelligence to his craft that's a pleasure to watch in every scene he's a part of.

"It's such a unique thing to be, a genius like this who ordinarily would be a national treasure and a hero, but in this case no one even knows not just his name, they don’t even know of his existence. And that goes for the whole of Star City. Everyone working there and all the work that was being done there, none of the larger population had any knowledge of its existence."

For Nedivi and Wolpert, the element that wasn’t as focused on in "For All Mankind" is the alarming presence of secrecy and intelligence gathering of the surveillance state in Soviet Russia.

"That's the added element that 'Star City' has and that’s something we wanted to be as accurate about as we are with space exploration in 'For All Mankind,'" Nedivi explains.

"A lot of the contraptions and stuff you see being used on Star City is based on actual spycraft contraptions that were used in that time. That was one of the key elements we wanted to capture here.

"And the fact that the space program for the Soviet Union was their crown jewel. That for them was the thing they were most proud of. And you'd think that pride would mean they’d want that celebrated and the cosmonauts to be celebrated, but really it was quite the opposite. They wanted them even more controlled. They were so worried about their celebrity and success, making them feel like they were bigger than the state, that it put them under even more pressure when they came back to Earth. If 'For All Mankind' the danger is in space, in 'Star City' it's on the ground."

Stylistically, "Star City" nails the darkened mood and iron-fisted environment of life behind the Iron Curtain. The detailed production design was inspired by Cold War flicks like "The Manchurian Candidate," "Mission: Impossible," and James Bond movies.

"I’d add 'The Lives of Others' and 'The Conversation,'" notes Ifans. "I do remember watching these great '70s movies in my father's lap in a smoke-filled living room in North Wales or the cinema. For me it was any number of paranoid thrillers there seemed to be in the '70s and early '80s."

Wolpert echoes those same sentiments that define the overall immersive authenticity of "Star City."

"Especially even in the visual approach and the approach to how the show uses sound and the sort of filmmaking of it, we really wanted it to feel like it was one of those paranoid thrillers from the '70s like 'The Conversation,' like 'The Parallax View,' or 'All The President's Men,'" he adds.

"Those grainy, gritty films. You can feel the film stock and feel the playfulness with the approach to sound that we felt would really put people in that place and time."

"Star City" streams exclusively on Apple TV each Friday at midnight Pacific Time. through July 10.

NASA ordered five astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter in an attached SpaceX Dragon spacecraft today while Russian cosmonauts tried to fix a concerning air leak on the orbiting lab.

"Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency's SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway," NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said via X this morning.

The persistent leak, Stevens explained, is in the PrK transfer tunnel, which leads to Russia's Zvezda service module, one of the oldest parts of the station. This leak, apparently caused by small cracks in the tunnel, has been an issue for years, and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, manages it "through operational mitigation measures and periodic partial-repair efforts," Stevens wrote.

Those efforts were working until a few months ago, when the leak sprung up again. That development spurred today's action, which Stevens termed a "more extensive repair operation."

The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission are NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. They arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-February for a six-month stay.

They took shelter today in Crew-12's Dragon capsule "Freedom," along with NASA's Williams, who arrived at the station in late November aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Williams flew with two crewmates on that Soyuz — cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. They're presumably the ones who attempted the PrK leak fix today. (Stevens' X post did not mention who performed the repair or what exactly the operation entailed.)

Their work didn't last long, however.

"Roscosmos has paused Friday’s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, as more measurements and data is assessed," Stevens wrote via X at 10:57 a.m. EDT (1457 GMT) today, just an hour after her original post about the shelter order.

"Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International Space Station," she added.

The PrK leak is a reminder of the ISS' advanced age. Construction of the complex began in 1998, and It has been continuously occupied by rotating astronaut crews since November 2000. And Zvezda is one of its older pieces: The module launched to orbit in July 2000.

But the ISS still has a fair bit of runway left. It will operate through at least 2030 and potentially until 2032, giving more time for private successors to get up and running in low Earth orbit.

Editor's note: This is a developing story and will be updated when more information becomes available.

In June of 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly to space.

Today, we celebrate not only that historic flight but also Sally Ride's enduring legacy, which is especially meaningful during Pride Month. While Ride's sexual orientation and relationship with surviving partner Tam O'Shaughnessy weren't revealed until after Ride's death in 2012, her life and achievements remain inspirational to people around the world.

What is it?

On June 18, 1983, NASA's STS-7 mission sent five astronauts on a mission to Earth orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Sally Ride flew as a mission specialist alongside mission commander Robert Crippen, mission pilot Frederick Hauck and fellow mission specialists John Fabian and Norman Thagard. After just over six days and two hours in space, the crew landed back on Earth at Edwards Air Force Base in California before eventually returning to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-7 carried and deployed communications satellites. The crew also supported a variety of scientific experiments, including a study on the social behavior of ants without gravity, how metal alloys form in microgravity, and even a study on space sickness.

Why is it incredible?

When STS-7 launched, Ride did what no American woman had been allowed to do before: fly to space. After decades of human spaceflight missions and advancements that left out women as astronauts, this mission was the first of many to start evening the playing field. But this was only one of many historic firsts for Ride.

Following her death in 2012, for example, the astronaut came out in her own obituary.

"In addition to Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, Sally is survived by her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin, and nephew, Whitney; her staff of 40 at Sally Ride Science; and many friends and colleagues around the country," Ride's obituary read.

"I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them," Bear Ride, who also identifies as gay, said in a statement following this news.

Today, over 40 years since Ride flew to space and 14 years since her passing, there are still no astronauts who have intentionally come out as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community during their lifetime. This fact highlights the tremendous obstacles that still remain for so many, and it reinforces that remembering Ride's legacy is as important today as it ever has been.

Hundreds of students came together to design, build, and test rovers on an Earth obstacle course to prepare for the moon.

Space exploration starts with a lot of hard work on Earth. And in this new photo, we can see a hardworking student team putting the pedal to the metal in a rover their team designed and built for NASA's Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC).

What is it?

Every year, hundreds of students from around the world participate in HERC, a nine-month long challenge to design and build human-powered or remote-controlled rovers that could be capable of traveling across the moon's surface.

After months and months of designing, developing, building, and testing, the teams put their rovers to the ultimate challenge with a final event in Huntsville Alabama where NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is located. At this event, which took place in April, 2026, the students drove and/or remotely operated their rovers through a specially designed half-mile obstacle course to see how they might really fare on the lunar surface.

Why is it incredible?

HERC is open to students ranging from middle school to college-age. This year, students from 28 colleges and universities, 13 high schools, and one middle school from around the world participated. This year, the 32nd year of HERC taking place, 600 students as part of 44 different teams took part in the challenge.

This event gives students of all different ages and from a variety of backgrounds the opportunity to work with real-life space science problems like "how will we get around on the moon?" And as part of this challenge, NASA provides the student teams with access to NASA subject matter experts and space industry professionals to help guide them through their project.

These teams, in addition to thinking big and working together on their rovers, also have to complete a design review, an operational readiness review, a mission readiness review, and an excursion readiness review before competing in this obstacle course  — similar to how real spaceflight hardware is developed. This challenge gives these students a uniquely realistic look at what it might take to really get a piece of technology ready for the moon.

It’s done already? Tonight, "For All Mankind" launches into its 10th and final episode of an eventful fifth season filled with romantic gestures, explosive action, a Happy Valley rebellion, major food shortages, heartbreaking sacrifices, and a Titan discovery of illuminating proportions.

Wrenn Schmidt and her extraordinary portrayal of Margo Madison, from a bright NASA engineer who becomes the first woman at Mission Control, then director of the Johnson Space Center, to trading Soviet secrets, stealing an asteroid, living as a Russian refugee, then landing in a U.S jail, has to be one of the wildest character arcs ever witnessed in the history of television.

We connected with Schmidt to look back at Margo's remarkable journey in Apple TV’s flagship sci-fi series, and her five-decade onscreen transformation.

"We didn’t talk a ton about Margo coming back in season five," she recalls regarding word of her traitorous character's return from creators Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi, and Ronald D. Moore.

"She's in the slammer. We talked about it being about Margo being back in jail serving her sentence, and she really hangs her hat on these visits with Aleida. That was kind of it. I've always been someone who doesn’t want to know anything ahead of time. I’d get the scripts and just see what was there. It was a weird season because Margo was so integral to everything before. Now she's more of a supporting character. It was a big shift for all of us."

After spending the last eight years on "For All Mankind" from the onset, there’s a synchronicity that evolves naturally from being part of an ensemble cast.

"It’s pretty extraordinary to get to play a character like this for that long," Schmidt explains. "When I wasn’t playing Margo, I really missed her. One of the things that happens when you're playing a character for such a long time and you’re working with a lot of the same actors, there becomes a shorthand you don’t even realized gets layered in. Like, who is Aleida to me? It was just there. The same was true with Ed Baldwin [Joel Kinnaman] and pretty much everyone I acted with. It gives you a wonderful freedom to focus on other things."

Often told by her acting coaches to choose ingenue-type roles, Schmidt slipping into Margo’s skin has been a career-defining opportunity. "From playing Margo, I'm actually in a place where now somebody can say, 'play seventy.' I’m getting to do a lot of things that are really hard. It was the pleasure and honor of my career to play Margo in her Sixties in Russia. That's an extraordinary challenge that you don't come across very often."

There’s a definite physicality to senior citizen Margo this season, with her shuffling gait in prison-issued orthopedic shoes and her Tootsie Rolls.

"There’s so much to think about when it comes to being in an aging body," she notes. "Where does she feel good? Where are things painful? I feel like these are things that I’m just beginning to experience. It feels like your body starts to betray you in a way. Especially if you’re someone who’s not been physically active or is physically fit. Margo has time to have hobbies.

"She has time to be interested in stuff maybe she never would have come across before. She listens to Dolly Parton now. She’s exposed to all kinds of things being in jail, because she’s got nothing but time. I always envision that she watches 'The Price is Right' every day. That's her show."

“For All Mankind” season 5 streams exclusively on Apple TV along with previous seasons. You can also catch Star City, the Soviet-set spin-off show, which debuts on May 29.

Get ready to watch 'Star City' and see the alternative-history space race from behind the Iron Curtain.

Everyone is familiar with NASA's Apollo Program and its endeavor to land the first person on the lunar surface when Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong took one small step for a man on July 20, 1969. But Apple TV's "For All Mankind" gave us a look into an alternative history version of the historic mission, one where Russia landed on the moon first, and the Space Race accelerated further than true-life events transpired.

Now we're headed over to Star City, the Soviet Union’s secret cosmonaut training city located just an hour outside Moscow, to see how this fictional feat was accomplished by the forbidden city’s population of cosmonauts, security thugs, scientists, engineers, aerospace aces, KGB operatives, and double-agent spies.

With "For All Mankind" season 5's finale airing this week, it’s time to switch sides to "Star City" and learn how the USSR beat the Americans at their own game despite oppression, near-disasters, sabotage, love triangles, paranoia, and some really bland food.

Let’s brave the Cold War chill, comrades, and march right into Apple TV's "Star City!"

When does "Star City" come out?

The debut season of "Star City" starts on May 29, 2026 for its first 8-episode outing at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), with the initial two chapters titled "The Eyes" and "A Bear on a Chain" kicking things off.

Subsequent weekly episodes will arrive each Friday until the season finale is broadcast on July 10, 2026.

How To Watch "Star City's" Inaugural Season?

"Star City" and its dark espionage saga, paired with harsh life inside the Soviet space program’s clandestine headquarters encircled by concrete and razor wire, can be seen exclusively on the Apple TV streaming platform, along with all five seasons of the original "For All Mankind" flagship series from which it was spawned.

If you're going to be out of the country when the show debuts, you can still watch it on your streaming service of choice using a VPN. You'll be able to connect to your streaming services, no matter where you are on Earth (though it won't work on Mars, sorry).

What Is The Plot Of "Star City?"

More than just a Space Race story set in the early 1970s when the Cold War was still heating up, "Star City" is actually closer to a classic Hollywood spy thriller with the Soviets' secret cosmonaut training base at the core of the tense (and often quite violent) new series.

In many ways, Apple TV's advertising campaign sums it up perfectly with the truthful motto that "as dangerous as it is in space, it's more dangerous on the ground." It's grim, cold, calculating, severe, and humorless, exhibiting an authentic peek into the Soviet side of human spaceflight.

"A bold new chapter inspired by the critically acclaimed space-race drama, 'For All Mankind,' 'Star City' is a propulsive paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race — when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon," states the official synopsis.

"But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers, and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they took to propel humankind forward."

"Star City" Teasers And Trailers

The first bleak teaser dropped on Mar. 25, and opens on a b&w TV broadcast of a Soviet lunar landing, accompanied by the voice of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who becomes the first man to walk on the Moon.

A montage of images from the heart of Star City proceeds to paint austere conditions and the constantly unsettling setting in a forested town not on any map to see how it was all accomplished.

A second full trailer arrived April 23, and begins with an abrupt wakeup by Lyudmilla Raskova, the KGB’s security chief in Star City, dragging a frightened woman out of bed, then sets the stage for the unnerving paranoid environment that exists within the Chief Designer's space program and the Soviets' solemn desire to keep beating the Americans.

Electronic bugs are installed, secretaries listen in on every phone call and conversation, and rock 'n roll is banned in this cruel culture of absolute secrecy.

Who Are The "Star City" Cast And Creators?

"Star City" is truly blessed with an outstanding ensemble cast of international actors that rivals the impressive assembly of talent seen in "For All Mankind." And that's not really a surprise since the spinoff series was conceived by Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore, the same competent creative team behind its Emmy-winning sister series, "For All Mankind."

The show is headlined by "House of the Dragon's" Rhys Ifans as Chief Designer, a character patterned after real-life Soviet space chief Sergei Korolev, and "Motherland's" Anna Maxwell-Martin portraying the emotionless KGB security boss Col. Lyudmilla Raskova.

"Star City's" killer cast also includes Agnes O’Casey, Alice Englert, Priya Kansara, Solly McLeod, Adam Nagaitis, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, and Josef Davies.

An astronaut captured a view from the International Space Station (ISS) that will take your breath away.

Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) snapped this photo from a window aboard the ISS, capturing a piece of the station itself, a sliver of Earth's atmosphere, and a peek out at the cosmos beyond.

What is it?

In January, Yui returned from space after completing the nearly five-month SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the ISS.

While this mission, like all spaceflights, was jam-packed with science and hard work, Kui took a moment to snap a truly astounding photograph of the southern sky from the window of the "Kibo" Japanese Experiment Module on the ISS.

This view "only happens when the ISS is oriented with its front and back reversed from the usual direction of travel — it's a very rare sight," Yui wrote in a May 14 post on X.

Yui participated in Crew-11 alongside NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

Why is it incredible?

This "rare sight," as Yui described it, is as multi-faceted as it is stunning. Rather than a view of just Earth, space, or the space station, it's a mesmerizing combination of all three.

In the foreground, the hardware of the space station stands rigid in space, the station's solar panels extended as the outpost orbits hundreds of miles above Earth.

Just under this orbiting hardware, you can see the edge of Earth and our glowing, colorful atmosphere, lit up with red and green auroras.

Yui further described the view beyond, which includes our nearest solar system neighbor Alpha Centauri in the upper right-hand corner. Additionally, the cosmic view reveals a dark patch that is the Coalsack nebula. Next to that, you can see the Southern Cross constellation, the star Eta carinae, and more.

"This scene lets you feel the three-dimensional depth of the universe, from the window frame just a few centimeters from the camera, to the solar panels dozens of meters away, to the auroras," Yui said. "With the ISS truss extending toward the abyss of space, this composition seems to symbolize the future where humanity's wisdom will challenge the deep cosmos — it's one of my favorites lol."

Note: Yui's comments have been translated from Japanese to English.

On May 29, Apple TV will launch "Star City," their 10-episode spinoff of "For All Mankind" that depicts an alternate history of the space race from the Soviet perspective as they become the first nation to land a human on the moon instead of the United States.

But far from being pure fiction, "Star City" is based on the real-life hidden Russian city just outside Moscow where cosmonauts lived and trained alongside engineers, scientists, and the ever-present eyes and ears of KGB agents keeping a lid on Soviet secrets.

As a primer for Apple TV's upcoming show starring Rhys Ifans, Anna Maxwell Martin, Agnes O’Casey, Alice Englert, Solly McLeod, Adam Nagaitis, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, and Josef Davies, we're heading behind the Iron Curtain to glean more info on how this location became the nexus for the USSR's human spaceflight endeavors. Along the way we'll pop in with a NASA expert and space history author to hear their thoughts on Star City, which is still operating today as a bustling international hub of cosmonaut activity. Break out the vodka and come along, dear comrades, while we drink a toast to Star City!

A forbidden city in the trees

At the tail end of the 1950s it was apparent that the Soviet's nascent manned spaceflight program needed a permanent home, something slightly off the grid (and maps!) yet close enough to the country’s capital and its political infrastructure. The secret location chosen was located roughly 40km northeast of Moscow, nestled within a thick evergreen forest, and became the main training facility and home to Russia’s cosmonauts. Nicknamed Zvezdny Gorodok, or Star City/Starry Town, this clandestine base of operations was built beside the Tsiolkovskaya railway station served by the Yaroslavl Railroad.

Founded in 1960 as Military Unit 26266, Star City evolved into the core of cosmonaut development for the next three decades until the fall of the USSR in 1991. Upon the 1968 death of Russia’s first man in space, this closed city was then renamed the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in honor of their pioneering hero.

Like Hogwarts with heroes in spacesuits instead of wizards in robes

This Soviet-sanctioned Cosmonaut School contained all the necessary living and training equipment for the country’s initial class of candidates during the Cold War to learn the required knowledge and gain hands-on experience to travel into space. These pre-selected fighter pilots and their families moved into their apartments during the summer of 1960 after residing at the Frunze Central Airfield in Moscow. They joined dozens of civilian personnel assigned to the compound who were all part of the monumental endeavor.

Renowned Soviet pilot and polar explorer Nikolai Kamanin became the director of training for all cosmonauts in the program. Besides the Vostok spacecraft simulators and actual classrooms, Star City, also became its own self-sustaining community over the years with the addition of parks, schools, gym, church, post office, pharmacy, rehab facilities, and a movie theater.

"Star City is the same species of town as Baikonur—a purpose-built space community that is equal parts industry and inspiration," Jeffrey Kluger, New York Times bestselling co-author of "Apollo 13" with Jim Lovell and author of "Gemini: Stepping Stone To The Moon," tells Space. “Think of Ford's Dearborn plant but with the target not on the roads but off the planet.”

It wasn't the Ritz-Carlton, but it was cozy

Once you got past humorless armed guards at checkpoints leading to Star City, what workers found were cold clusters of austere buildings and apartment blocks designed for practicality that held a sterile architectural purity so often seen on display in Cold War-era structures.

During the historic Apollo-Soyuz Project in the mid-1970s, Star City welcomed Americans for the first time, adding college-style dormitories for NASA's astronauts while they trained with cosmonauts for that historic 1975 mission. After the dissolving of the Soviet Union, NASA constructed several duplexes for housing during the Shuttle–Mir program completed from 1994-1998.

Today the once-forbidden, concrete-walled town is populated by engineers, scientists, current and retired cosmonauts, training specialists, scientists, doctors, and administrative staffers. NASA has had permanent presence here since ’94 and there's evidence everywhere of the history of the country’s storied space program, Yuri Gagarin, and the future graduates of the GCTC.

"The early Soviet space program was responsible for so many of the major 'firsts' of the Space Race, and it’s fascinating to look at how the U.S. responded during those early years - something I explore in my most recent book," NASA historian and author Andy Saunders tells Space. "One of the clearest differences between the two programs is embodied by Star City itself, which began as a top-secret military facility. American successes and failures played out in front of the world, while the Soviets often celebrated their triumphs and concealed their setbacks.

"That secrecy gives Star City an almost mythical quality even today. Despite the political rivalry and different public images of the two programs, behind the scenes both were driven by the same extraordinary ambition - to push human beings further than ever before."

Last one in the buoyancy pool is a bowl of borscht

The Cosmonaut Training Center and its simulation facilities within its borders also include a soccer stadium, a heating complex that warms Star City during Russia’s harsh winters, a children's space camp, and a metal fabrication factory. 600 employees work at the GCTC, training the next generation of cosmonauts whose eyes are aimed at the stars.

Specific facilities include: A 12-meter-deep hydro-lab pool for spacewalk practice equipped with full-scale mockups of essential components of the Russian International Space Station Segment and a 20-ton MIR module; full-size mockups of every spacecraft developed by the old USSR; a massive TsF-18 centrifuge and downsized TsF-7 centrifuge, a deluxe planetarium which can project up to 9,000 stars, and a new integrated pilot simulator for Russia's next-gen PTK-Orel transport spacecraft. And did we mention the tribute statue to Laika the space dog?

Another attraction in Star City is the Museum of Cosmonautics, which contains an impressive collection of documents and materials chronicling the history of manned cosmonautics. Its exhibit halls detail a range of space programs over the decades from Vostok to Mir. Also available for viewing are spacecraft mockups, simulators, cosmonaut spacesuits, personal items belonging to legendary space figures, and even a reproduction of Yuri Gagarin's actual office.

Pack your suitcase for a star city vacation!

Well, we wouldn't start packing your bags quite yet, but it is possible to visit this highly restricted Russian village that's still lightly guarded at checkpoints  — but now using only civilian personnel rather than military. Today, Star City is home to just under 7,000 people. It's relatively tiny, encompassing about 7 square kilometers (2.70 square miles) adding up both the city itself and its Space Center.

Since 2009, Star City's training center is no longer under the Russina' Ministry of Defense's strict military control and is currently run by the Russian Federal Space Agency known more commonly as Roscosmos.

There are several Star City tourism companies that offer packages to take an excursion to Moscow or have an extended stay in this strange remnant of another age. But to begin the process, a special permit is required which must be approved a month before your visit by Russian authorities. This can be handled by private travel firms that organize vacations to the area, as well as jet rides, zero-G flights, or a Baikonur cosmodrome side-trip!

For an easier route to Star City, virtual tours can be experienced at the official GCTC site. Nostrovia!

The rocket boosters from NASA's Artemis 2 mission appear in striking unison in this photograph.

This dual-booster moment was captured following the boosters' separation from the rocket's core stage, which you can see on the left, heading off to set the Orion spacecraft on its way around the moon.

What is it?

On April 1, 2026, NASA's Artemis 2 mission blasted off carrying four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back. The mission sent the crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch of NASA and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — to space aboard the Orion spacecraft (named Integrity).

The capsule launched atop NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, a heavy-duty launch vehicle designed for missions just like this that propel humans to the moon.

SLS features two solid rocket boosters that add power behind this massive rocket. In fact, these two boosters provide 75% of the initial thrust that the mission needs to escape Earth's gravity. But once their fuel is used up, which happened just two minutes and 8 seconds after liftoff on this flight, the boosters' 16 different separation motors ignite to push the boosters away from the rocket and one another. Ultimately, the boosters fall into the Atlantic Ocean and are discarded.

Why is it incredible?

It is amazing to see these boosters separating so perfectly and elegantly in Earth's upper atmosphere as the mission travels into space.

The SLS rocket has been a massive undertaking for NASA. But despite all of the time and budget concerns that have plagued the rocket's reputation over the years, this photograph shows a brilliant execution of separation.

Between the Orion spacecraft seamlessly motoring onward on the left of this image and two boosters mirroring one another on the right, this booster separation is picture perfect.

China has named the three astronauts due to fly on the Shenzhou 23 mission on Sunday (May 24), including Hong Kong's first astronaut.

A Long March 2F rocket is due to lift off at 11:08 a.m. EDT (1508 GMT, or 11:08 p.m. Beijing time) on Sunday (May 24) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, sending the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft into orbit to dock with China's Tiangong space station in low Earth orbit.

Aboard Shenzhou 23 will be commander Zhu Yangzhu, pilot Zhang Zhiyuan and payload specialist Lai Ka-ying. Zhu flew for the first time on the Shenzhou 16 mission in 2023, while Zhang and Lai, from China's third and fourth batches of astronauts, will be making their first trips to space. The crew were revealed at a press conference at Jiuquan on Saturday (May 23).

Lai is set to become Hong Kong's first astronaut to fly to space, having previously worked in the Hong Kong Police Force before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 2024.

Another major first from the mission will see one Shenzhou 23 astronaut carry out China's first continuous year in orbit. The astronaut was not named, but a China Manned Space Agency representative stated that the pilot and payload specialist are able to perform each other's roles, suggesting that one of the two will stay for a full year in space.

The extended stay for one astronaut will pave the way for yet another first for the Shenzhou 24 mission, due to launch in six months' time. Aboard will be a Pakistani astronaut, who will spend a few days aboard Tiangong before returning to Earth on the outbound Shenzhou 23 vehicle, taking the seat of the astronaut selected to stay for a full year in orbit.

Hours after launch, the Shenzhou 23 crew will be greeted aboard Tiangong by Shenzhou 21 astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, who are completing an extended seven-month-long mission and will be returning to Earth at the end of the month.

Shenzhou 23 also features enhanced protection for its portview windows, in response to damage to the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft's window by a suspected debris impact. The incident triggered an emergency response, seeing the Shenzhou 20 crew return to Earth aboard the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft for safety reasons, and the uncrewed Shenzhou 22 launched to serve as a lifeboat and ride home for the Shenzhou 21 crew.

The Shenzhou 23 mission follows shortly after the launch of the Tianzhou 10 cargo spacecraft, which arrived at Tiangong on May 11, delivering nearly 7 tons of supplies. The Shenzhou 21 crew will return to Earth on May 29, after handing over control of Tiangong to the incoming Shenzhou 23 astronauts.

Acclaimed actor Costa Ronin ("The Americans," "Homeland") is another fresh face in Apple TV’s "For All Mankind" season five; his Soviet ex-cosmonaut politician, Leonid "Lenya" Polivanov, has the dubious honor of presiding over Happy Valley as the official governor of Mars.

"The entourage makes the king, right?" Ronin tells Space. "The colony has grown so much, and with any growth of any colony, there’s more to do and more responsibility and more political intrigue."

It can be challenging for an actor to join a show so late into its run, but Ronin has embraced that challenge. "It has been incredible to walk into a show that's been TV royalty for so many years. You walk in on set, and you get to play with your favorite actors, your favorite characters, and favorite world. It's really quite remarkable."

Regarding Polivanov's ultimate allegiances on the Red Planet, the series has made the most of Ronin's instinctive skills to present a mercurial, multidimensional personality who is much craftier than he first appears. Often leveraging his powers at will as Mars is being cut off from aid, even as he’s secretly hoping to become the USSR's next President.

"I approach it as if you imagine a bow and arrow,” explains Ronin on his artistic process. "You know where the shot is going to come from; this is where we meet that character. Then I try to go as far as I can to create as much backstory as possible so that by the time it's day one of filming, I kind of release him into the world and let him make his own decisions.

"I had multiple conversations with the creators of the show and the writers to get an idea of where the character was going and, more importantly, where he's coming from" notes Ronin. "What he says ultimately is dictated by what he thinks, and what he thinks is dictated by what he knows."

That meant homework for Ronin before he could step into the role.

"It was important for me to read those books that he perhaps would have read about the Soviet space program. Because he comes from being a cosmonaut. He does not come from a nepotism environment of political powers. I created a cosmonaut who then later, through his wife’s relationships and ambitious family ties, became a politician, which led him to be the governor of Mars."

Ronin composed his Martian governor role with absolute precision, assembling the character from the inside out and harkening back to his early cosmonaut days. His fashionable wardrobe was selected by costume designer Esther Marquis. until it came to one essential accessory.

"I know how to tie a tie, and there are ten or twenty ways to do it,” he admits. "And the only way I don’t know how to tie a tie is exactly the way they tie it in the show. So I always had to have somebody come do it. "

Beyond his own styling, Ronin also leaned on the prop department to help him get into the character of Polivanov. "There’s a scene in the governor’s office where there were a few things I wanted to have there from his past days as a cosmonaut," Ronin explains. "I wanted him to have two clocks and two watches to know this was the time on Mars, and this was the time in Moscow. So there were little things that may not necessarily be visible to the audience, but I, as a character, knew."

As to how he wrapped his mind around the notion that his Lenya Polivanov was residing on another planet? Ronin felt it wasn’t too tough because he didn’t really get to play outside.

“So I didn’t get to play with zero gravity or any of the elements that space brings into our life," he notes. "To me, the fact that the sets were built with such incredible attention to detail helped tremendously. It didn’t matter if you were in an actual building or in a spaceship because everything was functional. The only thing that spaceship didn’t do was actually fly. Every button had a function and a purpose. We have tremendous consultants, and we were always able to refer to them.

"There's a scene where Celia and I fly in a transport hopper, and we had a conversation with the consultants to make sure this was the actual sequence of how it would happen in real life. These are the buttons that would get us there. So when you are in the pilot’s chair in your scene, you don’t have to think about it because the character would be able to do that in his sleep."

"For All Mankind" season 5 is streaming now exclusively on Apple TV, where you can also find the previous four seasons.

China launched its next crew to the Tiangong space station on Sunday (May 24), on a mission that will relieve astronauts who have been in orbit a month longer than planned, and send one astronaut on China's first year-long spaceflight.

A 203-foot-long (62 meters) Long March 2F rocket launched the Shenzhou 23 mission on Sunday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 11:08 a.m. EDT (1508 GMT; 11:08 p.m. local time at Jiuqan).

Shenzhou 23 is sending the next trio of astronauts to Tiangong to begin a six-month-long stay aboard the space station. That trio consists of Zhu Yangzhu (the mission's commander), Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying. Lai is the first astronaut from Hong Kong to reach space.

The launch also marked the start of a historic human spaceflight for China: One of the three astronauts is starting a one-year stay in orbit, a first for the country. This is because Shenzhou 24, due to launch late this year, will be used to send a Pakistani astronaut to Tiangong for a short-duration visit.

This first international visitor to Tiangong will arrive on Shenzhou 24 but then take the seat of one of the Shenzhou 23 astronauts days later when the spacecraft returns to Earth, leaving one Shenzhou 23 astronaut to complete a year in orbit. (Chinese space officials have not yet said which astronaut will fly this extra-long mission.)

The launch of Shenzhou 23 also heralds the end of what has become China's longest human spaceflight mission to date — the emergency-impacted Shenzhou 21.

The new crew will take control of Tiangong from the Shenzhou 21 astronauts, who saw their Shenzhou 20 colleagues use their Shenzhou 21 spacecraft to get home after a suspected debris impact damaged the Shenzhou 20 vehicle. The uncrewed Shenzhou 22 was later sent to Tiangong to provide a lifeboat for the Shenzhou 21 astronauts — Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang — and is now scheduled to carry them back to Earth on May 29.

Shenzhou 23 is the 11th crewed mission to fly to Tiangong. The first such flight took place in June 2021, when Shenzhou 12 visited the station's Tianhe core module; two further crewed missions aided assembly of the three-module facility, which was complete by late 2022. Shenzhou 22 was launched uncrewed in an emergency response to provide a lifeboat.

The Shenzhou 23 mission follows shortly after the launch of the Tianzhou 10 cargo spacecraft, which arrived at Tiangong on May 11, delivering nearly seven tons of supplies.

Editor's note: This story was updated at noon ET on May 23 with the launch date and time and the identities of the three Shenzhou 23 astronauts. It was updated again at 1 p.m. ET on May 24 with news of launch success.

Apple TV's "For All Mankind" is setting up for an explosive season 5 finale as hungry Marsies are growing impatient, and Earth's M-6 Alliance just dispatched an inexperienced military fire team to commandeer the all-important Goldilocks asteroid and its precious Iridium resources.

Avery "AJ" Jarrett (Ines Asserson) and Lily Dale (Ruby Cruz) are two of this season's newest young adult characters. They were last seen as children in season 4, but they are all grown up now with the show’s time jump to the 2010s. We connected with Asserson and Cruz to learn more about their journeys on Apple TV’s flagship sci-fi series and the rigors of zipping up a spacesuit!

“We had so many different costumes because of their development in her association with the Marines," Asserson tells Space. "It was so cool, and I felt really powerful in the uniforms during the space travel to Mars. We weren't in them very long. It was easy to physically enter the headspace of a Marine wearing them. The first time in a spacesuit was really cool, then I realized they're not that easy to wear. They're heavy and clunky, and you want them to look cool. I mean, when else would I get to wear a spacesuit?"

Asserson's Off-Planet Expeditionary Force (OPEF) marine is a complex individual whose family legacy is a generational aspect of the hit show. She's the daughter of Danny and Amber Stevens, and granddaughter of astronauts Gordo and Tracy Stevens, who sacrificed themselves in season 2's finale to save the Jamestown lunar base by taking a suicidal moonwalk.

"There’s so many tensions with AJ; there’s this rigidity and so much desire and emotion and loneliness within her," explains Asserson.

"She’s really fighting such a battle with herself that speaks to that kind of yearning for belonging and friendship and family as well, and to embrace her family history. Her struggling wth her past is always going to be a difficult thing for Avery. I think that’s going to take shape in many different situations. Everything is going to make her see another side of herself."

In crafting her Earth-based soldier character, Asserson talked to a number of veterans, which was something that became incredibly informative to understand the mindset of combat and camaraderie.

"Then we did a lot of CQB (Close-Quarter Battle) training with a real Green Beret," she adds. "He was phenomenal. We learned to clear rooms, operate guns in a way that's realistic, and to work together as an OPEF group. Those friendships have really become super important to me in my real life, actually, which I think is that Marine mentality."

Ruby Cruz portrays Lilly Dale, the daughter of Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell), and an ambitious journalist who helped leak the secret Happy Valley automation documents to the press with Alex (Sean Kaufman).

"Building Lilly was really fun because I got to watch Miles Dale in season 4 and build the daughter that that father would raise," Cruz tells Space. "It's so cool thinking about the different qualities in him that she would really admire and look up to and want to embody. And the different qualities in him that really frustrate her and that she would want to reject. Building out with Toby was really fun because he's one of the funniest people.

"I really like that Lily is a young person discovering her voice in fighting for what she believes in. She has this very rebellious, fiery, impulsive nature that I can somewhat relate to. I don’t like the establishment. I don't like organized systems," notes Cruz.

"And I do relate to her in that way, but she's harsher than I am, and I liked being in that headspace. She also has a very big heart and has a lot of care for people. I think her journalistic tendencies are really cool. She cares about the truth, and it was inspiring to be reminded that it's a very important thing."

Filming in multiple sound stages on the historic Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, California, was particularly rewarding for Cruz, as was trying to absorb the production’s insane scale.

"Nothing shoots in L.A., so it’s cool shooting at home. But also to film on these historic stages. 'The Wizard of Oz' filmed there!" exclaims Cruz.

"Then, to be in such immersive sets made it easy for an actor to be immersed immediately, and that was a rare experience. The spacesuits are like real spacesuits! They're so complicated and much heavier than you'd ever expect. [Costume Designer] Esther Marquis is so well versed in making space suits that space companies have approached her in helping design their suits."

"For All Mankind" season 5 streams exclusively on Apple TV, along with the previous four seasons.

NASA's Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft rests after its flight around the moon, charred from the return to Earth.

The Artemis 2 mission launched four astronauts on a journey around the moon aboard an Orion capsule that its crew named "Integrity." Looking at the capsule now, you can see what it went through to get home.

What is it?

On April 1, NASA launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. This mission, called Artemis 2, was the first time humans have traveled to the moon in over 50 years, since NASA's final Apollo mission in 1972.

On their trip home, the crew — NASA astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, mission pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — hurtled back through Earth's atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.

This return trip was no picnic. During its descent, temperatures around the capsule reached up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). And while the capsule's heat shield kept the astronauts inside safe, this picture clearly shows the extreme environment that the craft had to ensure.

In the photo, the capsule sits, burned by its return journey, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Multi-Payload Processing Facility in Florida.

Why is it incredible?

Launching to space is a spectacular feat. To have a rocket launch with astronauts on board go perfectly well is even more amazing. But once you're in space, whether it's on a mission to the moon or the International Space Station, at some point you have to come home to Earth. And returning can be just as tricky as getting there.

The Orion capsule, sitting propped up at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, is a charred testament to the challenge of that return trip. You can see the dark tiles on the capsule's side, and underneath it is entirely burnt.

Moving forward from Artemis 2, experts at NASA will take a closer look at the aftermath of this fiery return to better understand if and how the spacecraft and its heat shield might have to change with the program's upcoming mission, Artemis 3, which will stay in Earth orbit to perform rendezvous and docking tests.

After "re-booting" the moon and establishing a base there, followed by dispatching expeditionary crews to Mars, where should humanity go?

Next month, a first-of-its-kind gathering will blueprint an eventual crewed trek to tantalizing Titan, the largest of Saturn's many moons. That inaugural "Humans to Titan Summit" will make the case for an astronaut outing to that far-off moon, detailing the science goals and concepts of human missions to Titan as well as necessary forerunner robotic efforts.

And there is already a robotic Titan mission on the books — NASA's nuclear-powered Dragonfly octocopter mission, which is targeted to launch in 2028. Could it help fuel a human leap?

Foundational talks

"It's not too soon to begin thinking about this," said Amanda Hendrix, director of the Planetary Science Institute, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. She is also president of the advocacy group Explore Titan and co-author of "Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets" (Pantheon Books, 2016).

"The idea of the summit is to bring together people from different communities — engineers, scientists, industry, academia, robotic and human spaceflight experts," Hendrix told Space.com. "We're having foundational talks about what precursor missions do we need in order to get us on the road to Titan, eventually with humans."

Hendrix noted that, after Apollo's last human foray to the moon in 1972, there was a gap of decades, a lull in launching astronauts beyond Earth orbit — a pause just filled by NASA's recent Artemis 2 mission, which sent four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth.

"Now we are, hopefully, back on track [with] humans going to the moon, with NASA talking about Mars as the next human destination," said Hendrix. "I think having a concept in our mind after Mars can guide our thinking, give us a path and keep us motivated for the future."

Visits, past and future

The Saturn moon has had visitors already. On Jan. 14, 2005, the European Space Agency's robotic Huygens probe — part of the NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn — touched down on Titan.

Making a 2.5-hour descent through Titan's atmosphere, the Huygens probe provided a stream of data for 72 minutes once on the moon's surface. It set the still-standing record as the most distant landing from Earth.

"Huygens showed us many things," Hendrix said. She cited the dynamics of Titan's atmosphere, the look of its surface — which features water-ice "rocks," dry river beds, lakes and dunes — as well as the overall haziness at the landing locale.

"It does look otherworldly," Hendrix said.

Next up for Titan is Dragonfly, now scheduled to launch no earlier than 2028 for a six-year voyage to Titan. Once landed, the craft will spend three years flying from spot to spot to investigate a range of sites, perhaps revealing its potential to host life.

A dynamic world

"Dragonfly is an awesome, super-important mission to a fascinating and active world," said Hendrix. "Titan is not a static place. It is a dynamic world," she said, "probably a place that's very close to an early-Earth kind of environment."

Dragonfly will give us a leg up in the effort to send humans to Titan, Hendrix said, "but there's still a lot to do and learn."

"Ultimately, we're trying to get humans on the surface and living there. I think that's doable in the long-term, for sure," she said. A precursor mission might involve robotic orbiting of Titan — perhaps even a human crew circuiting the Saturn moon. Radar and infrared scanning of its surface could be done, she said, along with gauging what impact Titan's changing seasons have on the moon's atmosphere.

"A lot can be done, and should be done, robotically. But with humans on the surface, there's work only humans can do," Hendrix said.

Surmountable issues

So, how best to strut the right stuff on Titan?

First, there's more atmospheric pressure than here on Earth. "You don't need a pressure suit like you do on the moon or Mars. What you do need to do is keep warm. It's very cold there. There's also a little more gravity than the Earth's moon," said Hendrix.

Because of Titan's atmosphere, "you can strap wings to your arms and move through the atmosphere under your own power, or strap on a jet pack and power yourself around. You've got that atmosphere and low gravity. There are many options for transport on Titan, which Dragonfly is taking advantage of," Hendrix said.

Also, you'd have to make your own oxygen, Hendrix said, which is not available in Titan's thick, nitrogen atmosphere laced with methane. A Titan-based habitat would need a power source. And, given the precipitation of molecules and gunk that rains down and settles on the surface, there's a need to protect equipment, she said.

"This is all surmountable," said Hendrix, saying that Dragonfly and other precursor missions could yield information useful for human visits to Titan.

The Humans to Titan Summit 2026 is being held June 11-12 in Boulder, Colorado. The goal is "to explore the concept of Titan as the next human exploration destination after Mars, how it could be done and what we would need to do now," according to the event's website.

"We want the workshop to invigorate the community to think about what we need to do and what the possibilities are … to plant the seed that this is a real possibility," Hendrix concluded.

The human heart shrivels away in space, but researchers have found that mini-hearts grown from human stem cells sprout in space significantly faster than in labs on Earth.

Weird things happen to astronauts' hearts in microgravity. Without the sense of up and down, the flow of blood in the body changes. More of the fluid gathers in the head, and there is suddenly less of it not just in the legs but also in the heart itself. Not having to push the body against the resistance of gravity, the heart shrinks, weakens and even changes its shape, becoming more circular.

Even heart muscle cells flown in petri dishes to the International Space Station (ISS) deteriorate. Their ability to contract declines and their metabolism changes. Yet, when researchers tried to grow human mini-hearts from stem cells on board the ISS, they found they could produce them more easily and in higher quantities, Arun Sharma, director of the Center for Space Medicine Research at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, told Space.com.

"On one side, you have things that have already been made before that are being exposed to low gravity and potentially deteriorating and getting weaker over the course of being exposed to microgravity," Sharma said. "On the other side, you are actually making those things from scratch in space. It's possible that the production process is facilitated by low gravity."

Sharma, who has been sending heart cell experiments to the ISS since 2016, presented the results of his team's latest work at the 46th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation in Toronto on April 25.

In the past five decades, researchers have learned how to make human stem cells grow into human heart organoids — essentially proto-hearts made of self-organized clustering heart cells that begin to behave like an actual heart. Stem cells are the universal cells found in human fetuses that can turn into any kind of human cells as the baby body develops. Stem cells can also be reverse-engineered in labs from adult skin or blood cells. With the addition of the right proteins at the right time, these stem cells can be prompted to grow in labs into beating, three-dimensional heart organoids in just a couple of weeks.

To make those mini-hearts at scale, Sharma said, researchers use bioreactors that effectively mimic microgravity.

"We use these things called suspension bioreactors, which force [the heart cells] to float around," said Sharma. "The cells love being grown in this way. But to force them into suspension, you typically have to spin them around and introduce some sort of a force, which the cells can sense. And they don't like being always agitated this way."

In space, however, floating happens naturally without any uncomfortable stirring. And the cells seem to love that.

"We have seen a very significant increase in terms of organoid production," Sharma said. However, he declined to specify how many more heart organoids the space experiments produced compared to Earth-based reactors, as the results have not yet been published.

"I can say that the scale of production is something that's been very impressive," he said. "Just the number of organoids that we can make in this way."

Launching stuff to space is obviously expensive, but Sharma thinks that in the future, organoids or heart tissue 3D-printed in space could be used to help patients with heart damage who are awaiting heart transplants.

No space-grown proto-hearts have been used in human patients yet, and no tests are being planned so far, said Sharma. Researchers are currently testing heart muscle patches made of induced human stem cells bioengineered on Earth to ease the lives of patients with heart damage. The human heart cannot repair its broken muscles on its own, so outside help is needed. Based on the latest research results, Sharma thinks that patches and organoids made in space may be of superior quality.

"The microgravity environment offers the potential to produce thicker, more robust patches less prone to collapse under gravity when brought back to Earth," he said.

Due to regulations, it may take years for space-grown mini-hearts to make it to human trials. Sharma thinks that the organoids will first be used to test new heart disease drugs.

Heart disease is a leading cause of premature death worldwide. Millions of people around the world die every year because of heart disease. Stem cell therapies that regenerate the damaged heart muscle are among the most promising innovative treatments on the horizon.

Sharma's team plans to send more heart cell experiments to the space station on board NASA's SpaceX CRS-35 resupply mission, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than August.

A group of former NASA astronauts are banding together with a new organization called "Astronauts for America."

"Our country is the mission," their tagline reads. And in speaking with co-founder NASA astronaut Ron Garan, it is clear how serious they are about this mission. "We need to come together as a crew and nudge the trajectory of our nation back onto a course that's leading to a better future," Garan told Space.com. "As astronauts, we're trained that when we see something that's wrong, we speak up and we fix it."

Astronauts for America is a new, explicitly nonpartisan organization made up of former NASA astronauts who aim to "defend the Constitution of the United States," their website reads. Currently, there are over 100 astronauts as part of this mission, though not all are publicly listed on the website for their privacy, according to Garan.

So where did this all come from?

"There's been a steady erosion of adherence to constitutional norms," Garan said. "And there's been an erosion of rule and law following."

These concerns are shared by other organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which has stated growing concerns of violations of the U.S. Constitution by lawmakers.

Garan's concerns also extend to an observed trend in recent years of distrust in science.

"There's been a steady erosion of people with political power either ignoring or suppressing scientific evidence […] we need to make sure that people are using facts and evidence," Garan added.

This trend has seen political decisions which do not align with scientific evidence, such as legislation concerning vaccines and climate change. Even long-debunked myths in science such as the conspiracy that the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked (hint: it wasn't) as well as UFO conspiracies have seen a resurgence in popularity. Across the board, this divide between science and public or political opinion has continued to grow.

How to protect the Constitution

To take on defending the U.S. Constitution, the group plans to first raise awareness through public platforms like social media. They further plan to meet with members of Congress, "to urge them to use their constitutional powers to ensure checks and balances," Garan said.

"We are going to support leaders publicly that use data and science in policy making," he added. "And what we really want to do is build community, because what the main objective of this organization is to unify the American people around this idea that we are greater than the sum of the parts […] if we work together as crewmates, as we do on space missions, we can steer the trajectory of our nation to a future where we will all thrive."

One main facet of the group's approach is that it is an explicitly nonpartisan organization, so astronaut members are not affiliated with any specific political party; rather they are together focused on supporting a constitutional government. As Garan described, astronauts are taught to fix incredibly challenging problems, and to do so when it comes to the U.S. government, "we have to work together despite any differences we might have."

"When we see things from two different perspectives, we see it in stereoscopic vision," he added. "We start to see the depth of a solution. So one of the reasons why bringing in all this diversity of perspective is so important is because it leads to better solutions."

This isn't the first time that NASA astronauts have tangled with politics. There have been many astronauts who became politicians or vice versa, for example. Former NASA administrator Bill Nelson was in politics before becoming an astronaut, while currently we have former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly serving as a senator for Arizona.

Because this is a private, activist organization, current employees of the U.S. government cannot participate, so you won't see any current astronauts or astronauts-turned-politicians as members. However, even though current astronauts cannot participate directly, it is possible that the awe inspired by NASA's recent Artemis 2 mission around the moon could play an indirect role in the group's ultimate goal, Garan shared.

"The Artemis 2 mission filled the world, not only the nation, with awe and wonder," Garan said. "And when we build things on wonder, it naturally opens the mind. It brings down the defenses, it puts fear on the back burner and it allows us to have rational conversations about how to really solve our problems."

The Artemis 2 heat shield looks like a sunken treasure from the Titanic in an underwater shot following splashdown.

The mission's Orion capsule splashed down off the coast of San Diego on April 10, safely returning its astronaut crew home. Now, we can see the aftermath of that landing in a striking new photograph.

What is it?

On April 10, NASA's Artemis 2 mission ended its historic 10-day journey around the moon and back. This was the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972, which is when the final mission of NASA's Apollo program wrapped up.

Following splashdown, U.S. Navy divers helped extract the crew from the capsule so the astronauts could continue on their way home. The Orion capsule will be returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for additional study following the mission — but before it was plucked from the ocean, the divers managed to capture images of the capsule and its heat shield underwater.

Why is it incredible?

This image is eerie and captivating. Against the dark blue of the ocean, the scorched tiles of the heat shield float like details on a forgotten relic lost at sea.

But most importantly, this striking image represents an incredible feat.

While hurtling through Earth's atmosphere at nearly 35 times the speed of sound, the Orion capsule endured incredibly hot temperatures. In fact, on that journey home, it may have reached temperatures upwards of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius). To protect the crew inside, the capsule was equipped with this heat shield, which thankfully did its job. Analysis of the returned capsule and heat shield will continue as the agency prepares for its next crewed mission: Artemis 3.

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight (April 21). And, if you spot any Lyrid meteors, you have something cool in common with an astronaut!

Yesterday (April 20), NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared a photograph that she took of the Lyrid meteor shower from aboard the International Space Station (ISS). But her view was a bit different from yours, as she saw a Lyrid streaking through Earth's atmosphere from above.

What is it?

The Lyrid meteor shower is at its peak this week, with prime viewing happening overnight from April 21 to April 22.

The Lyrids are made up of bits of debris trailing the long-period comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was discovered in 1861. Long-period comets have very long orbital periods, taking hundreds of years or more to orbit the sun.

Every year around this time, Earth passes through this comet's debris field. Pieces of it burn up in our atmosphere, creating the spectacular meteors that streak across the sky.

The shower produces up to 15 to 20 Lyrid meteors per hour. You can see the Lyrids radiating from around the constellation Lyra (hence their name). If you can, find dark skies for optimal viewing.

In a photograph snapped from aboard the ISS, Meir revealed that she was able to see a Lyrid meteor shower lighting up the dark night skies over Earth.

Why is it incredible?

This photograph is so much more than just proof of a successful meteor shower watch.

It is a stunning visual reminder that our planet is protected by a surprisingly thin atmosphere. As Meir shared in her post, you can see below the horizon where the meteor is streaking.

The experience of living in space aboard the ISS is unique for so many reasons. But what a remarkable moment, for astronauts in space to be able to look down at their home planet and watch our atmosphere interact with a comet like this.

It turns out that living in space can have a lasting impact on how your brain works, researchers have found.

In space, astronauts have to learn to live without gravity — whether they're aboard the International Space Station (ISS) or on a journey to the moon, such as with NASA's Artemis 2 mission. While space adventurers do experience microgravity conditions beyond Earth, that gravitational influence is so minimal that you can think of it as a virtually weightless environment. But while floating around might sound fun, even simple tasks like holding an object can post unique challenges. So, scientists have wondered, how does the brain adapt to this kind of lifestyle?

In a new study, researchers from the Université catholique de Louvain and Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science, explored how astronauts' brains adapt to weightlessness. The team studied changes in how astronauts grip objects when going from Earth to space and then back to Earth again.

The results were a little stranger than you might expect, and could have serious consequences for future astronaut safety.

“What we observed was totally unexpected,” lead author Philippe Lefèvre, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Université catholique de Louvain, told Space.com.

The researchers found that months after returning to Earth from space, astronauts had trouble exerting the correct amount of force to properly grip an object. In fact,their brains were so used to gripping weightless objects in space that it took them months back on Earth to readjust.

Similarly, the team also found that, while in space, astronauts actually exerted more force than necessary to grip objects because their brains still expected the presence of gravity.

Essentially, both during a mission in space and after returning to Earth, astronauts "misinterpret sensory feedback," Lefèvre said.

Grip vs gravity

To conduct their study and investigate the ways human brains adapt to major changes in gravity, researchers analyzed grip force and movement in a total of 11 European Space Agency astronauts both on Earth and in space. In both scenarios, the astronauts performed repetitive movements while gripping an object, which were later studied by the team (back on Earth).

Living on Earth with the force of gravity, we know that if we let go of an object, both inertia and the weight of the object (a combination of mass and gravity) will cause it to fall. In space, only inertia causes objects to move. For instance, simply letting go of an object won't make it "fall," but tapping down on it would have the same visual effect because you've added a manual force. But while we might know this intellectually, it turns out that it takes some time for our brains to catch up to our gravity (or gravity-less surroundings).

These findings, which show how astronauts in space and then again back on Earth exert an incorrect amount of force to grip objects, suggest it takes our brains time to gradually adjust to a sudden lack of or a return in gravity — at least, in terms of grip strength. This could have significant implications for future astronauts traveling to the ISS, the moon, and maybe even beyond someday.

Having the right grip on an object could be the difference between conducting a routine procedure without a hitch or having a piece of that experiment slip away and into something fragile aboard a spacecraft. The correct grip could be the deciding factor in whether an astronaut correctly maneuvers a robotic arm or successfully performs a medical procedure.

Understanding how the brain and grip are affected by gravitational changes could also have safety implications, especially during events like spacewalks or even moonwalks. Even exercising aboard the ISS could be dangerous if someone’s grip were to slip.

"Even if the risk of slippage is low, the consequence of slippage would be really dramatic," Lefèvre explained. "If you move at high speed [with] a big object onboard the ISS, and you lose the grip, the object will keep going. It's gonna hit something, and it could be dramatic in terms of safety."

Both in space and on Earth, it's important to keep a grip on things.

A study about these results was published Today (April 20) in the Journal of Neuroscience.

I've been imagining what it would be like to go to the Moon ever since 1961 when I was five years old, staring at the artists' conceptions in my childhood space books. When Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to actually go there, during Christmas week of 1968, I was a 12-year-old space fanatic camped out in front of the TV with models of the spacecraft I'd built from kits, maps of the Moon, and articles about the flight — my own personal mission control.

For me, the highlight of the 20 hours Apollo 8 spent in lunar orbit on Christmas Eve came when Borman and his crew made two TV broadcasts with their small onboard black-and-white camera. I was absolutely mesmerized by the images of craters gliding slowly past the spacecraft's windows. I loved their fuzzy, almost dreamlike quality; somehow that fit the momentousness of the event and the almost unimaginable distance between the three Moon voyagers and all of us on their home planet.

This was nothing less than the most exciting thing I could possibly imagine. I wanted to be those men, and over the next four years I took my place in front of the TV for every one of the Apollo missions, right up through the end of the program in December 1972. Witnessing humanity's first voyages to another world became my life's defining experience. I couldn't have imagined then that I would grow up to become a space historian and that I would spend eight years writing a you-are-there account of the lunar missions, based on my in-depth interviews with the Apollo Moon voyagers. But even as I re-immersed myself in Apollo, I had to face the reality that the first era of human lunar exploration was receding ever further into history, with nothing on the horizon to replace it. Since then there has always been a part of me drawing sustenance from the distant past, especially when I began teaching the lessons of Apollo to NASA engineers in 2016.

As the time for Artemis 2 drew near, my anticipation was mixed with uncertainty. Would this new Moon mission spark the feelings of wonder and excitement I'd had so long ago? Those doubts didn't last long. When astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen headed for the Moon in the Orion spacecraft they named "Integrity," I felt like parts of my brain that had been dormant since 1972 were being reactivated. I listened to every minute of their seven-hour lunar flyby — but this was nothing like the Christmas Eve I'd experienced more than 57 years before. Now NASA's coverage featured extended views from inside the cabin while the astronauts worked, so clear that they could have been aboard the International Space Station 250 miles (400 kilometers) up instead of a thousand times farther away.

As I listened to the astronauts' voices, I felt as if a veil had been lifted: Instead of the restrained, "Right Stuff" delivery of the Apollo 8 crew's transmissions, I heard expressions of exhilaration and even joy. And I was amazed at the richness of detail about the lunar experience that was available to everyone in real time. Even the astronauts' geologic descriptions were filled with human moments that put me in the spacecraft alongside them. As "Integrity" rounded the Moon, Christina Koch likened the appearance of the smallest, freshest lunar craters to "a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through. They're so bright compared to the rest of the Moon." Victor Glover described peering at the long shadows of the lunar terminator through a telephoto lens and suddenly feeling transported down to that airless, forbidding landscape and imagining himself off-road driving among jagged peaks.

For me, the most awesome moment of the entire mission happened when "Integrity" flew into the Moon's shadow, creating a nearly hour-long total eclipse of the Sun — more than 10 times longer than most total eclipses visible from Earth. I was transfixed by video from the spacecraft's external cameras showing the glow of the solar corona slowly disappearing behind the Moon's darkened limb. Aboard "Integrity," the astronauts let their eyes adapt, and soon they could see the Moon's night side set against a dim glow, with a crescent-shaped slice of the cratered globe illuminated in the soft light of Earthshine. I heard Victor Glover say, "We've just gone sci-fi." Suddenly I was filled with curiosity, hungry for more description.

But this was one sight that was beyond their ability to convey in the moment. "It's just, it's indescribable," I heard Reid Wiseman say. "No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular. Surreal. There's — I know there's no adjectives. I'm gonna need to invent some new ones to describe what we are looking at out this window."

The morning after the flyby, I opened my laptop to find that the astronauts had beamed down their photos of the encounter, and I felt like Rip Van Winkle awakened from a half-century nap. For decades after Apollo, there was no such thing as hi-def scans of the missions' photographic film, but now, just hours after the event, I was looking at full-resolution digital images of stunning beauty, including new portraits of a brilliant blue and white crescent Earth setting and then rising behind the lunar far side's lifeless expanse, taken from the farthest point in deep space that humans have ever reached. I felt a wave of excitement and relief come over me at the realization that a new era of human deep space exploration has finally begun. Now, instead of just looking back, I'm looking ahead.

Andrew Chaikin is the author of "A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts" (Viking, 1994). His website is www.DoSpaceBetter.com.

Even in space, we love to make our friends laugh.

On April 13, NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jack Hathaway worked to capture Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) using the Canadarm2 robotic arm. But before the successful capture, the pair had a bit of fun.

Williams played on an optical illusion, reaching his hand out and appearing to "hold" the Cygnus XL from the ISS' cupola alongside Hathaway as the pair smiled and laugh.

What is it?

On April 11, NASA's Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission sent over 11,000 pounds of cargo, including scientific investigations, to the ISS aboard a Cygnus XL spacecraft, identifiable by its two, round solar arrays.

On April 13, Williams and Hathaway captured the spacecraft using the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Once captured, they positioned it for installation on the ISS' Earth-facing port.

As you can see in the image, while the Cygnus was visible outside of the cupola, the pair had some fun pretending to "hold" the spacecraft between their fingers with a classic optical illusion.

Why is it incredible?

Space is hard. With the Cygnus XL's arrival, Williams and Hathaway accomplished a challenging feat, capturing and installing a spacecraft carrying thousands of pounds of cargo to another orbiting spacecraft.

But what's amazing is that, despite the constant and plentiful challenges of outer space, astronauts still manage to find the joy. And their fellow astronauts shared in the joy with them.

"Congratulations to @Astro_ChrisW and @astro_hathaway on their first cargo vehicle capture using the @csa_asc Canadarm on the @Space_Station! Mission accomplished today. Hatch opening and cargo ops, including many scientific experiments (and even some fresh food!), commence early tomorrow. Well done, @northropgrumman, @NASA, @SpaceX teams!" fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared on X on April 13 X.

In the wake of NASA's triumphant Artemis 2 mission to the moon, which safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean to return its four-astronaut crew home last week , NOVA is launching a one-hour documentary to reveal an inside look at the historic spaceflight.

Directed by British filmmaker Tim Lambert ("Guns, Germs and Steel," "Alien Worlds"), the new documentary "Return to the Moon" will air on PBS stations tonight (April 15) at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central). It provides a captivating behind-the-scenes examination of NASA’s Artemis program and its engineering challenges as the endeavor moved from 2022’s uncrewed Artemis 1 mission and its unexpected Orion heat shield concerns, to April 1's liftoff of Artemis 2.

"We wanted to somehow do justice to the extraordinary ambition of the Artemis program and try to chart and chronicle the mission from beginning to end, from soup to nuts, or design to splashdown if that’s more appropriate," Lambert tells Space.com. "To be an observational documentary eye and follow what’s going on. It's difficult doing that with NASA because it's hard getting access to all the things you need access to. Everything has to go through protocol and export control and then it’s just a matter of finding the right moments and piecing bits together."

"Return to the Moon" targets the design and manufacture of NASA's massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with an attention to detail that delivers the titanic core stage right into your living room. We're also treated to an in-depth look at Artemis 1’s Orion capsule, the post-flight investigation into its partially compromised shielding tiles, the abandonment of the first mission’s double dip skip-entry maneuver, and the remaining risks as Artemis 2's liftoff arrived.

“When we started, we wanted to get very close to the astronauts and the whole idea that we’re heading toward the first woman and the first person of color on the moon and it seemed like a diversity project when we were back in the Biden days,” he explains. "That's sort of downplayed now in the Trump days. NOVA's executives were more interested in the idea of the engineering, and we realized this is kind of a science and engineering show.

"So that nudged us more towards talking to engineers and see behind the scenes, and in a way it's a very good thing. The astronauts are the rock stars of the project, but the real heart of the story, the question marks about the architecture of Artemis, are all connected to engineering ultimately. That's what slowed this whole process up, not the astronauts. And that was a moment for us, to read the Inspector General's report in May of 2024. No one really had any sense of how serious the capsule issue was and how bad the damage was."

Lambert is old enough to remember the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969. As a kid his parents dragged him out of bed to witness that event live on TV.

"They landed on the moon at night time here in England," he recalls. "We were woken up and told it was really important. I became an Apollo nut after that even though I was only six or seven. Like every other kid I wanted to be an astronaut. So for me it's like, 'Wow, we're certainly going back there.' We wonder why it took so long, but now we're here. It feels like a new age of inspiration. Whether Artemis and its huge ambitions can deliver or not remains to be seen. Not to plant a flag and pick up some rocks, but to actually put down a moon base is like science fiction. That to me is the inspiration, and I hope we get a little of that across in the film."

Nova’s “Return to the Moon” premieres on PBS Wednesday, April 15, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on PBS and will also be offered for streaming at pbs.org/nova, NOVA on YouTube, and the PBS App.