All articles tagged with #iss
SpaceX launched Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship NG-24 atop a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, delivering about 11,000 pounds (4,990 kg) of science gear and supplies to the International Space Station. The Cygnus XL, named S.S. Steven R. Nagel, will be grappled by Canadarm2 on April 13, marking the second Cygnus XL flight, while the booster returned to a Cape Canaveral landing about eight minutes after liftoff.
NASA's Expedition 74 crew is prepping for the Cygnus XL cargo mission to the ISS, delivering advanced microgravity research tools that could revolutionize quantum computing, stem cell therapies, and astronaut health. The week includes Canadarm2 capture and installation training on the Unity module, spacesuit maintenance and battery swaps, plus international collaboration with Roscosmos and ESA tech demonstrations to push toward future deep-space exploration.
NASA released photos from a March 18, 2026 spacewalk by Jessica Meir and Chris Williams to install a modification kit and brackets ahead of future roll-out solar arrays on the ISS 2A power channel, a seven-hour excursion that marked Meir's fourth spacewalk and Williams' first as they supported maintenance and upgrades for the station.
An apparently purple lifeform photographed on the ISS by NASA astronaut Don Pettit was revealed to be a purple potato sprouting in a hydroponic setup, with the so-called tentacles being sprouts and a Velcro patch keeping the potato in place. Nicknamed Spudnik-1, the potato highlights Pettit’s space gardening hobby, which has produced several crops in orbit; potatoes have been grown in space since 1995, though growth in microgravity tends to be slower.
A veteran NASA astronaut, Michael Fincke, suddenly lost the ability to speak aboard the International Space Station for about 20 minutes, triggering emergency protocols and NASA’s first in-orbit medical evacuation. No cause was identified, highlighting the limits of space medicine and raising concerns about health risks on longer missions like Artemis II.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit posted a photo of a purple potato grown on the International Space Station, jokingly called Spudnik-1. The purple hue comes from anthocyanins, and Pettit's post highlights ongoing space farming experiments and technologies like Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat aimed at producing food for long-duration missions.
A photo by NASA astronaut Don Pettit from the International Space Station that looked like a purple, tentacled egg sparked online speculation of an alien object, but Pettit later explained it was a purple potato grown during Expedition 72 as part of space gardening, a nod to The Martian and the future of long‑duration missions.
A NASA astronaut’s social-media photo of a tentacled growth on the ISS sparked jokes, but Don Pettit explains it’s an early purple potato growing in his improvised space-garden terrarium, part of ongoing research into cultivating crops in microgravity for future long-duration missions.
NASA says the ISS detected a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon—ripples in the mesosphere about 55 miles up—during Hurricane Helene. The signals, picked up by NASA's Atmospheric Wave Instrument (AWE) and supported by AMTM observations, link ground storms to upper-atmosphere waves with potential implications for satellites and communications.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit posted a Expedition 72 photo of a bizarre tentacled object on the International Space Station; it’s actually an early purple potato nicknamed ‘Spudnik’ tied to a grow-light terrarium with Velcro. Pettit explained potatoes were grown in space as part of his off-duty gardening, noting roots behave differently in microgravity, while fans joked “kill it with fire.” The story highlights ongoing space agriculture efforts aboard the ISS and the station’s role as a long-running international lab.
ESA plans to charter a dedicated SpaceX Crew Dragon mission under the EPIC program to send four ESA astronauts to the International Space Station for about a month in early 2028, boosting European presence in space ahead of the ISS retirement (target 2030, with talks of extending to 2032) and involving international partners while ESA leads the mission.
NASA unveils a sweeping redesign: push to a permanent Moon base with frequent lunar missions and a pause of Lunar Gateway, launch a nuclear-powered Mars mission featuring six helicopters, and retire the ISS by 2030 with a shift to commercial low-Earth orbit stations, while maintaining a surface-first Moon strategy and aiming for Artemis landings around 2028–2032.
A satellite operated by HEO Space captured a rare three-panel image of the International Space Station during a March 18 spacewalk by NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams outside the Quest airlock to prepare a new solar array; the photo, shared by HEO Space and later colorized for Reddit, underscores the growing role of satellites in high‑res space imagery and debris monitoring, with partners like BlackSky enabling multi-angle observations as orbital traffic expands.
A newly launched Russian Progress 94 cargo spacecraft developed an antenna deployment failure, jeopardizing automated rendezvous with the ISS. Ground teams are evaluating contingency procedures, including a backup manual docking by cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov if the antenna cannot deploy. All other systems remain nominal, and docking was planned, with the cargo expected to stay attached to the station for about six months.
Russia is scheduled to launch the Progress 94 cargo freighter to the International Space Station on Sunday, March 22 at 7:59 a.m. ET from Baikonur, carrying about 3 tons of food, propellant and supplies. Live coverage is available via Space.com and NASA, beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET; if all goes to plan, Progress 94 will dock with the Poisk module on March 24 around 9:34 a.m. EDT, replacing Progress 92. The spacecraft will stay docked for about six months before it is filled with trash and deorbited.