ISSLaunchLEO

Ax-2 Takes Off

The second-ever commercial astronaut mission to the ISS has embarked on its journey. Mission recap: Right on schedule at 5:37pm ET yesterday, the Axiom Mission 2 (aka Ax-2) crew of four successfully lifted off from KSC in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9. The crew included: AlQarni and Barnawi will be the […]

ISS

Saudi Arabia Will Make History With Ax-2 Mission

Two Saudi Arabian astronauts are expected to launch to the ISS this Sunday, marking a historic first for the Kingdom and highlighting its aspirations to become a global space power.  Ali AlQarni, a pilot, and Rayyanah Barnawi, a biomedical researcher, will make up half of the four-member crew on Axiom Space’s Ax-2 mission. They will […]

ISS

Redwire, Microsoft, and Marvel Team Up on STEM Initiative

An eclectic group is teaming up to save the galaxy bring real-life space technology to students across the country. Ahead of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie release Friday, Redwire ($RDW) announced yesterday that it’s partnering with Microsoft ($MSFT) and Marvel to 3D print a Microsoft Zune music player, like the one Star-Lord […]

CivilISSMoon

Japan and China Select New Astronaut Candidates

Japan’s astronaut corps Across the Pacific, two cadres of spacefaring hopefuls are getting the chance to train for extended stays off Earth. This week, China and Japan both announced plans to train new astronauts to support their respective human spaceflight programs. Two candidates have joined Japan’s astronaut corps. Yesterday, JAXA announced the new recruits—the first […]

ISS

Roscosmos to Send Replacement Soyuz Capsule to ISS

A lifeboat for members of the ISS crew is on the way. A Roscosmos investigation of a leak in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft found that the ship is unsafe to use for a ride home, and the agency announced this morning that it will send an uncrewed Soyuz to the station to use instead.  What […]

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Q4 2022 News Roundup

Can you believe 2022 is nearly over? It’s been a jam-packed year for the space industry, full of groundbreaking moments in science, turbulence in the markets and world order; substantive policy developments; and historic mission firsts.  We’re kicking off our year-end coverage by looking at objects closest in the rear-view mirror. Payload combed through the […]

CivilISS

Roscosmos and NASA Investigate ISS Leak

Last week, a pair of cosmonauts aboard the ISS were all suited up for a spacewalk, ready to step out of the decompressed airlock, when flight controllers noticed that the Soyuz M-22 capsule docked with the station had sprung a leak. Over the past week, NASA and Roscosmos have been investigating the leak, which spilled […]

CivilISSLEO

SpaceX, NASA Launch Cargo Resupply Mission to Space Station

SpaceX launched its 26th ISS resupply mission on Saturday, hoisting roughly 7,700 pounds of hardware, food, cubesats, and scientific experiments to the station. NASA and SpaceX scrubbed a liftoff earlier in the week due to uncooperative weather.  For the CRS-26 mission, SpaceX used a brand-new Falcon 9 booster (tail number B1076) and Cargo Dragon capsule. […]

CivilISS

A Dispatch from the Beyond Earth Symposium

The International Space Station has served as a beacon of international diplomacy, ground-breaking R&D, and scientific discovery for nearly 30 years. Its commercial follow-on could serve as a movie set, thanks to Axiom and its entertainment partner.   The policy and regulatory challenges facing commercial space station developers were front and center at Thursday’s Beyond Earth […]

ISSLEO

The ISS Retirement Roundup

In January, NASA released an updated ISS Transition Plan to extend the station’s life through 2030. After that, the agency plans to decommission it by burning it up in the atmosphere and dropping whatever’s left in an uninhabited region of the South Pacific.  The ISS, originally planned to deorbit after 15 years, is old enough […]

CivilISSTechnology

Orbital Reef Passes NASA System Definition Review

A new space station has moved one step closer to reality. Yesterday, Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced that their Orbital Reef project has passed its system definition review for NASA. The orbital outpost is now ready to enter the design phase. Orbital Reef 101 The ISS is destined for a watery grave in 2030—or […]

ISS

EVA Suit Electrical Issue Cuts Spacewalk Short

All is not well with the spacesuits aboard the ISS. Yesterday, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was instructed by Roscosmos ground control to “drop everything and go back” to the ISS when he was three hours into a spacewalk. The issue: a flaw in the Orlan EVA suit’s electrical system that caused an unexpected drop in […]