The International Space Station has a new commander as three Expedition 72 crew members get ready to return to Earth on Saturday. The orbital residents staying behind will soon welcome a U.S. cargo craft and get ready for their increment’s first spacewalk.
This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth. Illustration: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University) NASA’s James …
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will soon reach the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. In this image, created by stacking images that the Lucy spacecraft took during its approach, the asteroid appears as a series of points in front of the static background of stars and galaxies. In addition to the asteroid brightening as the spacecraft approaches […]
Expedition 72 will come to an end and segue into the Expedition 73 mission after three veteran crewmembers depart the International Space Station on Saturday. Meanwhile, the orbital residents stayed busy on Thursday with cargo mission preparations, spacesuit checks, and microgravity research.
Editor’s note: This advisory was updated April 16, 2025, to reflect an updated cargo weight for NASA’s SpaceX 32nd commercial resupply mission. NASA and SpaceX are targeting 4:15 a.m. EDT, Monday, April 21, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This is the 32nd SpaceX commercial resupply services […]
NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission successfully completed spacecraft commissioning this week, opening its instrument doors to capture “first light,” the mission’s first images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and the surrounding space. This is the first step in revealing new details of how the solar atmosphere unfolds and streams through …
By Wayne Smith The Lyra constellation in the Northern sky is known as a memorial to music thanks to being named after the lyre, a musical instrument similar to a harp. The small constellation is also the namesake from where the annual Lyrids meteor shower radiates. The Lyrids are expected to peak on the night […]
The first super pressure balloon flight of NASA’s New Zealand Balloon Campaign reached its float altitude after lifting off from Wānaka Airport, New Zealand, at 10:44 a.m. NZST, Thursday, April 17 (6:44 p.m., Wednesday, April 16 in U.S. Eastern Time). The football-stadium-sized, heavy-lift super pressure balloon is on a mission planned for 100 days or more […]
The first of two planned scientific balloon flights for NASA’s 2025 New Zealand Super Pressure Balloon Campaign successfully lifted off from Wānaka Airport, New Zealand, at 10:44 a.m. NZST, Thursday, April 17 (6:44 p.m., Wednesday, April 16 in U.S. Eastern Time). The 18.8 million-cubic-foot super pressure balloon is on a mission planned for 100 days […]
Three International Space Station residents will return to Earth this weekend just a couple of days before the expected arrival of the next SpaceX Dragon cargo mission. Soon after that, two NASA astronauts will exit the orbital outpost for a solar array maintenance spacewalk.
