All articles tagged with #international space station
Two astronauts, NASA’s Anil Menon and ESA’s Sophie Adenot, completed a 6.5-hour spacewalk on Aug. 25, 2026 to replace a faulty Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) on the ISS; they retrieved a spare, installed it on the Z-1 truss, moved the broken dish to storage, and re-established redundancy for the station’s communications and data links.
Space.com highlights Mauritania’s Richat Structure—a 25-mile circular geologic feature nicknamed the Eye of Africa—that’s clearly visible from space. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir photographed it from the International Space Station, continuing a tradition that began in 1965 when Gemini IV astronauts Ed White and James McDivitt captured the formation. The concentric ridges create a striking, Earth-art-like swirl that has fascinated observers since its first distant-eye view from orbit.
NASA veteran Mike Fincke retires after a 30-year career, totaling 549 days in space across four missions to the ISS and ranking fourth in NASA’s cumulative time in space. His final ISS flight was cut short by an undisclosed medical issue, marking the first medical evacuation from the station. Though retiring from NASA, he may still pursue spaceflight through the expanding commercial sector, a path similar to peers who have transitioned to private missions.
Longtime NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is stepping away from the agency months after a medical emergency aboard the International Space Station forced Crew-11 to end its mission early; Fincke, who joined NASA in 1996, flew four space missions, logged 549 days in orbit and completed nine spacewalks. NASA did not announce his next move, but Fincke said he remains committed to exploration and will help prepare the next generation as Artemis III crew details—including Luca Parmitano as pilot—are announced amid ongoing programs.
Indian-origin NASA astronaut Anil Menon conducts his first spacewalk from the ISS, a 6.5‑hour EVA with Jessica Meir to install hardware on the 3B power channel for the next Roll-Out Solar Array (IROSA), part of NASA’s effort to boost ISS power and extend its life; three more spacewalks are planned in August.
Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryck from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, is part of NASA's SpaceX Crew 13 for a six-month ISS mission, including maintenance duties and a Canadian-led health study on space travel and microgravity; the SpaceX Dragon is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 12, 2026.
Boeing says its Starliner is largely fixed after past issues and is coordinating with NASA to set a cargo launch to the ISS, which would pave the way for a potential late-2027 crewed test; a free docking port is needed, NASA has trimmed Starliner missions under a revised contract, and Boeing is weighing options including selling space-unit assets while awaiting port availability.
A Space.com writer experiences Space Explorers: The ISS Experience in VR at a Manhattan venue, stepping through a life-size, camera-enabled recreation of the International Space Station. The show uses NASA footage and camera setups inside and outside the station, guided by astronauts with a “shooting script” approach to filming, creating a vivid sense of the ISS and Earth from orbit. The piece highlights VR as a powerful medium to share the ISS story with the public and notes the real station’s uncertain future, including a possible deorbit around 2030.
NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev returned to Earth from the ISS after 241 days in orbit aboard the Soyuz MS-28, landing in Kazakhstan about 3 hours and 24 minutes after undocking. The crew orbited Earth roughly 3,856 times and travelled over 102 million miles; Kud-Sverchkov handed ISS command to Jessica Meir as Expedition 75 began, while Williams heads to Johnson Space Center and Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev return to Star City.
Astronauts on the ISS grew potassium chloride crystals in microgravity, producing hollow, stair-step “hopper” pyramids as edges and corners expand faster than faces. The near-weightless environment prevents gravity from pulling the crystal down, enabling unusually regular, low-defect structures that could inform earthly materials manufacturing and semiconductor tech—demonstrating how microgravity changes crystallization and sparking scientific curiosity.
A NASA/Space.com photo from the International Space Station, taken by Jessica Meir, shows glaciers flowing down the northern Himalayas toward China's Tibetan Plateau, highlighting the scale of the range and offering insight into glacier dynamics and climate-change implications.
A viral simulation visualizes the International Space Station as if it were flying at ground level (and at 10,000 ft), showing it would take about 90 minutes to circumnavigate Earth from the ground and would still move at roughly 17,150 mph at higher altitude, highlighting just how incredibly fast the ISS travels.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station filmed Fourth of July fireworks over Los Angeles, and NASA shared video showing the bright bursts lighting up the city and visible from space.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station observed July 4 fireworks from about 260 miles up as the ISS orbited overhead over the United States; NASA shared footage of fireworks over Los Angeles from space, and the article notes NASA’s Artemis II mission photos and the ISS’s ongoing role in microgravity research.
Astronaut Don Pettit described seeing “luminous dancing fairies” in the ISS, a retinal flash caused by galactic cosmic rays that pierce the craft and the eye. Apollo crews reported similar flashes, and the ALTEA detectors on the ISS linked heavy-ion particles to these events, explained by direct ionization or Cherenkov radiation. Although brief and seemingly harmless, these particles pose long-term brain and eye health risks for deep-space missions, influencing radiation-mitigation strategies for Artemis and future journeys to the Moon and Mars.