SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.
“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board.
The astronauts will receive more in-depth medical checks at a local hospital before flying to their home base in Houston, NASA said. Platonov’s return to Moscow was unclear.
The astronauts emerged from the capsule, one by one, after it was aboard the recovery ship. They were helped onto reclining cots and then whisked away for standard medical checks, waving to the cameras.
Jared Isaacman, NASA’s new administrator, monitored the action from Mission Control in Houston.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Skyler Chan launched GRU last year. Courtesy GRU Space
Civilian travel to the Moon remains years away, but a California startup is already making plans to host overnight guests there. GRU Space, founded by 22-year-old entrepreneur Skyler Chan, is taking deposits ranging from $250,000 to $1 million for a lunar hotel that has yet to be built.
“If we solve off-world surface habitation, it’s going to lead to this explosion. We could have billions of human lives maybe born on the Moon and Mars,” Chan told Observer. He founded GRU last year after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, and previously interned at Tesla.
The hotel, which the company expects to open by 2032, will initially consist of an inflatable structure designed to accommodate up to four guests for multi-day stays. Over time, it would evolve into a brick building inspired by San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts. More ambitiously, GRU argues that the project could do more than jump-start space tourism—an industry it sees as essential to sustaining a future lunar ecosystem—and instead lay the groundwork for entire cities beyond Earth.
Chan founded GRU with the goal of building the first permanent structure off Earth. His team includes founding technical staff member Kevin Cannon, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, and advisor Robert Lillis, who also serves as associate director for planetary science at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. The startup has received seed funding from Y Combinator, joined Nvidia’s Inception Program and counts SpaceX and Anduril among its investors.
GRU’s initial target customers include adventurers, repeat spaceflight participants and couples looking to elevate their honeymoon plans. While final pricing has not been set, the company said a stay would likely cost more than $10 million and require a $1,000 non-refundable application fee.
The project’s first milestone is slated for 2029, when GRU plans to launch an initial lunar mission to assess environmental conditions and begin early construction experiments. Two years later, another payload will land near a lunar pit chosen for its protection from radiation and temperatures, with initial hotel development targeted for 2032.
A rendering of GRU’s lunar hotel. Courtesy GRU Space
Chan acknowledged that GRU’s timelines are estimates, but argued that bold ambition is necessary to make progress. “We need to really shoot for the literal moon,” he said.
According to Chan, today’s space industry is dominated by two forces: governments and billionaire-backed companies. He hopes space tourism can become a third pillar. “Lunar tourism is the best first wedge to spin up the lunar economy,” he said.
GRU says it is well positioned to contribute to those ambitions, with plans that extend far beyond a single hotel. After completing its lodge, the company plans to build roads, warehouses and other infrastructure—first on the Moon, then on Mars. Eventually, it hopes to reinvest profits into resource utilization systems on the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
“If we’re able to understand how to use resources on the Moon and Mars and beyond, that is going to enable us to not be tethered to Earth, and start being interplanetary,” said Chan. “It’s a Promethean moment.”
NASA plans to return humans to deep space next month, targeting a Feb. 6 launch for Artemis II, a 10-day crewed mission that will carry astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
“We are going — again,” NASA said Tuesday in a post on X, saying the mission is set to depart no earlier than Feb. 6.
The first available launch period will run from Jan. 31 to Feb. 14, with launch opportunities on Feb. 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11.
If the launch is scrubbed, additional launch periods will open from Feb. 28 to March 13 and from March 27 to April 10. For the former, launch opportunities will be available on March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11, and for the latter on April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
NASA’s new moon rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. This launch is the first flight test of the Artemis program. (John Raoux/AP Photo)
The mission is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket the agency has ever built.
Preparations are underway to begin moving the rocket to the launch pad no earlier than Jan. 17. The move involves a four-mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B aboard the crawler-transporter 2, a process expected to take up to 12 hours.
“We are moving closer to Artemis II, with rollout just around the corner,” Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said. “We have important steps remaining on our path to launch and crew safety will remain our top priority at every turn, as we near humanity’s return to the Moon.”
The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission (left to right): NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.(NASA)
The 322-foot rocket will send four astronauts beyond Earth orbit to test the Orion spacecraft in deep space for the first time with a crew aboard, marking a major milestone following the Apollo era, which last sent humans to the Moon in 1972.
The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, making Artemis II the first lunar mission to include a Canadian astronaut and the first to carry a woman beyond low Earth orbit.
After launch, the astronauts are expected to spend about two days near Earth checking Orion’s systems before firing the spacecraft’s European-built service module to begin the journey toward the Moon.
A full moon was visible behind the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon.(NASA/Ben Smegelsky)
That maneuver will send the spacecraft on a four-day trip around the far side of the Moon, tracing a figure-eight path that carries the crew more than 230,000 miles from Earth and thousands of miles beyond the lunar surface at its farthest point.
Instead of firing engines to return home, Orion will follow a fuel-efficient free-return path that uses Earth and Moon gravity to guide the spacecraft back toward Earth during the roughly four-day return trip.
The mission will end with a high-speed reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, where NASA and Department of War teams will recover the crew.
Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I mission and will serve as a critical test of NASA’s deep-space systems before astronauts attempt a lunar landing on a future flight.
NASA says the mission is a key step toward long-term lunar exploration and eventual crewed missions to Mars.
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.
Back in 2024, NASA announced that the Artemis 2 mission was going to be pushed back to April 2026. Now, the agency says it could launch as early as February, with the first flight opportunity being on February 6. NASA is currently making the final preparations for the mission and will soon roll out the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft to their launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft system’s four-mile journey from the assembly building to Launch Pad 39B will take up to 12 hours. NASA is targeting a date no earlier than January 17, with the exact day depending on the weather and on the possible need for additional time to address technical issues.
Artemis 2 is the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo program’s final flight in 1972. The 10-day mission will have four astronauts on board who’ll be testing if Orion’s critical life support systems can sustain human passengers on future longer duration missions. They will first orbit the Earth twice before making their way 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the moon. If the SLS and Orion system is rolled out as planned, NASA intends to conduct a wet dress rehearsal at the end of January. The agency will load cryogenic propellants into the rocket and will do a full launch countdown during the rehearsal to prepare for the real event.
NASA has decided to bring the Crew-11 astronauts home a month earlier than originally planned due to a “medical concern” with one of them. This is the first time in its history that the space agency is cutting a mission short due to a medical issue, but it didn’t identify the crew member or divulge the exact situation and its severity. The agency is targeting a return date no earlier than January 14, with the exact schedule depending on the weather. If NASA’s original plan pushes through, the crew will splash down off the coast of California at approximately 3:40 AM on January 15.
The agency previously postponed an International Space Station (ISS) spacewalk scheduled for January 8, citing a medical concern with a crew member that appeared the day before. NASA’s chief health and medical officer, James “JD” Polk, said the affected astronaut is “absolutely stable” and that this isn’t a case of an emergency evacuation. The ISS has a “robust suite of medical hardware” onboard, he said, but not enough for a complete workup to determine a diagnosis. Without a proper diagnosis, NASA doesn’t know if the astronaut’s health could be negatively affected by the environment aboard the ISS. That is why the agency is erring on the side of caution.
Crew-11 left for the space station on August 1 and was supposed to come back to Earth on or around February 20. After they leave the station, only three people will remain: Two cosmonauts and one astronauts who’ll be in charge of all the experiments currently being conducted on the orbiting lab. The team’s replacement, Crew-12, was supposed to head to the ISS mid-February, but NASA is considering sending the astronauts to the station earlier than that.
Update, January 10, 2025, 5:15AM ET: This story has been updated to include Crew-11’s tentative return date.
NASA said Friday that it plans to return the Crew 11 to Earth next week, just one day after announcing that a crew member had suffered a medical issue that would require the crew to shorten its trip to the International Space Station.
According to NASA, Crew 11 is targeting a departure from the space station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule “no earlier” than 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 14, with a splash down off the coast of California at about 3:40 a.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 15.
The scheduled return could change depending on weather conditions, NASA said.
“Mission managers continue monitoring conditions in the recovery area, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends on spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors,” NASA said in a statement Friday. “NASA and SpaceX will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-11 spacecraft undocking.”
On Thursday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman reported in a news conference that an unidentified member of Crew 11 was dealing with “a medical situation” that would require the crew to return to Earth sooner than anticipated.
Officials did not specify the nature of the medical issue, with Isaacman only saying that the crew member was “stable.”
Crew 11 includes commander Zena Cardman, astronaut Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
It launched to the space station on Aug. 1, and had planned to return on Feb. 20, after the arrival of their replacement, Crew 12.
The situation first unfolded Wednesday, when NASA disclosed that a spacewalk had been canceled due to a “medical concern” with the crew member.
Chief Health and Medical Officer Dr. J.D. Polk said in Thursday’s news conference that the crew member was not injured or made ill by any operational aspect of living aboard the space station, adding that spacewalk preparations played no role in the incident.
The departure of Crew 11 would leave three people aboard the space station, NASA astronaut Chris Williams, and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.
NASA officials said they plan to bring the crew aboard the International Space Station home early due to what the space agency called a “medical concern” with an unidentified crew member.
They said the astronaut’s condition is stable and it is not an emergency evacuation, but they want to err on the side of caution and bring them home for additional testing.
NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer Dr. James D. Polk said the ISS is equipped with a “robust suite of medical hardware,” but it is lacking all the tools that would be needed for a more “complete workup” of a patient. He said the medical issue rose to the level where NASA would prefer to “complete that workup on the ground.”
NASA previously said it was looking into “all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11’s mission.”
NASA said it would not be identifying the astronaut in question or giving further details on the medical issue, but earlier said “the matter involved a single crew member who is stable.”
Currently aboard the ISS are commander Mike Fincke, flight engineer Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
The crew was scheduled to remain aboard the ISS until mid-February.
A spacewalk planned for Thursday outside the International Space Station was called off late Wednesday because of a “medical concern” with an unidentified crew member, NASA said in a statement.
An update shortly before midnight said the agency was exploring “all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11’s mission.”
Spacewalkers Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman.
NASA
“These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely,” the update said. “We will provide further updates within the next 24 hours.”
While NASA did not identify the astronaut in question or explain the medical issue — standard practice due to privacy concerns — the agency said “the matter involved a single crew member who is stable.”
Crew 11 commander Mike Fincke, flight engineer Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov launched to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship on August. 1.
Going into the new year, the crew expected to remain in space until their replacements arrive in mid-February. Crew 11’s return to Earth is expected around Feb. 20. That’s still the official plan.
In the meantime, Cardman, 38, and Fincke, 58, a veteran of nine spacewalks on earlier missions, were planning to venture outside the station Thursday to finish building a truss needed to support a set of roll-out solar arrays and to carry out other planned maintenance.
A second spacewalk by two yet-to-be-announced astronauts was planned for next week.
Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Chris Williams planned to assist Fincke and Cardman in suiting up and preparing the tools and equipment that would be needed outside the space station.
NASA
But NASA called off the the first spacewalk earlier Wednesday, saying “the agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon. Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member.”
“The situation is stable. NASA will share additional details, including a new date for the upcoming spacewalk, later.”
In a brief space-to-ground radio exchange just after 2:30 p.m. EST, Yui called mission control in Houston and asked for a private medical conference, or PMC.
Mission control replied that a PMC, using a private radio channel, would be set up momentarily. Yui then asked if a flight surgeon was available and if flight controllers had a live camera view from inside the station.
“Houston, do we still have, like, a camera view in Node 2, uh, 3, lab?” Yui asked.
“We don’t have any internal cameras right now, but we can put the lab view in if you’d like,” the mission control communicator replied.
“I appreciate that,” Yui replied. He then asked: “Do you have like a crew surgeon? … A flight surgeon?”
No additional exchanges were heard. Later Wednesday, NASA’s space station audio stream, normally carried live around-the-clock on YouTube, went silent without explanation.
The library at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to thousands of books and documents chronicling America’s space history, is closing in the coming months, raising concerns that rare records could be lost.
The library at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to thousands of books and documents chronicling America’s space history, is closing in the coming months, raising concerns that rare records could be lost.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on X that every item will be reviewed before the closure as part of a facilities consolidation plan approved in 2022 under the Joe Biden administration.
“The physical library space at Goddard is closing as part of a long-planned facilities consolidation,” Isaacman said. He added that the goal is to digitize materials, transfer them to other libraries, or preserve them for historical purposes.
Isaacman pushed back on reports suggesting NASA might discard documents, calling that characterization misleading. Critics have warned that historic and technical records could disappear.
“At no point is NASA ‘tossing out’ important scientific or historical materials, and that framing has led to several other misleading headlines,” Isaacman wrote.
He said preserving history is important, but NASA’s focus remains on future missions, including sending astronauts farther into space and returning to the moon to stay. Researchers will continue to have access to the resources they need, he said.
The library’s closure is part of a broader plan that includes shutting down more than a dozen buildings and labs at the center.
According to the New York Times, the closure will mark the eighth NASA library to close its door across the country since 2022. Libraries expected to remain open include those at the Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in California. Also staying open is the library at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
NASA is seeking proposals for a new system to help spot and identify drones that may be flying over the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The space agency recently put out a call for proposals for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) detection and analysis services, which NASA is hoping to put into action by April 2026. The purpose of the system will be “to make rapid and critical decisions to protect NASA personnel, the public, launch vehicles, flight hardware, critical high value assets, and security interests,” according to the contract listing. It will have both fixed and mobile sensors.
The move comes shortly after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it was banning new foreign-made drones and drone components, citing national security concerns.
Eyes on the skies
Kennedy Space Center is NASA’s primary launch site, including for the Space Launch System rocket that will carry the Artemis missions to the Moon, and houses facilities for research and commercial space ventures.
“All UAS flights over KSC property, whether inside or outside the security perimeter, are restricted and only occur with the approval of KSC Flight Operations,” NASA wrote in its proposal. It’s not clear whether the agency has faced recent threats from drones, or if this is a precautionary move to protect its launch assets. It’s also not clear what kind of drone detection systems are in use at the neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, home to classified military activities.
The drone detection system would detect and identify unknown UAS within a distance of at least 46 miles (64 kilometers), provide threat analyses, real-time detection and alerting capabilities, according to the call for proposal.
The recent ban on foreign-made drones stems from a defense bill that passed last year, which called for a review of the national security risks posed by the flying vehicles. In late 2024, there was a surge of reports of drones seen flying over New Jersey, but most experts say people were simply confused by traditional aircraft.
We can report at least one relevant siting: KSC’s Visitor Center is reportedly running a holiday drone show featuring 600 autonomous aircraft.
For months, Texas senators have made a controversial push to move NASA’s iconic Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Houston’s Johnson Space Center, a risky effort that could cost up to $150 million.
Like any NASA leader worth his salt, newly-confirmed Administrator Jared Isaacman has come up with a contingency plan.
In an interview with CNBC on December 23, Isaacman said relocating Discovery would depend on whether it could be done without damaging the space shuttle and within budget. If not, he suggested sending Houston a different spacecraft, such as an Orion capsule.
“If we can’t do that, you know what, we have spacecraft going around the Moon with Artemis 2, 3, 4 and 5,” Isaacman said. “One way or another, we’re going to make sure Johnson Space Center gets its historic spacecraft right where it belongs.”
Houston’s fight for a space shuttle
In April, Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced legislation to “bring Discovery home to Texas.” The core provisions of that bill were ultimately included in H.R. 1, the budget reconciliation bill signed into law on July 4.
Unlike Cornyn and Cruz’s original bill, these provisions do not specifically name Discovery or Johnson Space Center. Rather, H.R. 1 includes $85 million for a “space vehicle transfer” of a crewed spacecraft to a NASA center involved in the agency’s commercial crew program and directs NASA to select a spacecraft to be transferred within 30 days of enactment.
The bill also states that the selected vehicle must have flown to space, carried astronauts, and must be selected with the approval of a third party chosen by the NASA administrator. Discovery, the most-flown shuttle during its 27 years in operation, fits that bill, but it’s not the only option.
In August, NASA said then-Acting Administrator Sean Duffy selected a vehicle, but the agency declined to say which one. Sen. Cornyn’s office later claimed the choice was a retired space shuttle bound for Johnson Space Center—without specifying which shuttle.
Despite the uncertainty, the very prospect of moving Discovery from its home at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has spurred efforts to block the transfer. Senate Democrats, grassroots organizers, and the Smithsonian—which technically owns Discovery—have all voiced concerns about the costly and risky disassembly the move would require.
Discovery drama
In a letter addressed to the relevant Congressional committees in early October, the Smithsonian said both the museum and NASA agree that Discovery will have to undergo “significant disassembly” to be moved, risking the destruction of the historic vehicle.
The letter also estimated that the minimal cost to move Discovery is in the range of $120 million to $150 million, not including the cost of building a new facility to house the shuttle in Houston.
Cornyn and Cruz disputed those claims, going so far as to call for a Department of Justice investigation into the Smithsonian’s “illegal lobbying” against Discovery’s move. The DOJ has yet to launch any such investigation.
Whether NASA and the Smithsonian move forward with Discovery’s transfer remains to be seen, but a decision to give Houston an Orion capsule would likely be a much easier—and cheaper—alternative. Those spacecraft are significantly smaller than the space shuttles and can be transported by truck.
With Isaacman taking the helm of NASA in the midst of this space shuttle saga, it’s clear he wants to find a solution that will appease both the powerful senators and the spaceflight community. In the interview, he stressed that preserving Discovery and conserving NASA’s budget are his top priorities.
“My job now is to make sure we can undertake such a transportation within the budget dollars we have available and, of course, most importantly, ensuring the safety of the vehicle,” he said.
The White House is moving to dismantle a weather research facility in Colorado, a decision that would not only impact climate science on Earth, but our ability to understand space weather as well.
The National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is currently under threat. White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced the administration’s plan to take apart NCAR, referring to it as “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” in a December 16 post on X.
The move is the latest in the Trump administration’s war on climate science, which has included proposing cuts to research funding and scrubbing data from government websites.
NCAR was founded more than six decades ago to study Earth’s atmosphere, weather, and climate, but it also performs research on space weather, the Sun’s activity and how it affects Earth’s magnetosphere. Two of NASA’s upcoming heliophysics missions rely on work carried out by NCAR scientists.
Cloudy with a chance of cuts
Earlier this month, NASA chose to advance two heliophysics missions to further understanding of our host star and the stream of charged particles it emits, also known as solar wind.
One of those missions, the Chromospheric Magnetism Explorer, or CMEx, is led by NCAR scientist Holly Gilbert. CMEx is being designed to study the reddish layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, called the chromosphere, in an effort to understand the origin of solar eruptions and determine the magnetic sources of solar wind, according to NASA.
“These mission concepts, if advanced to flight, will improve our ability to predict solar events that could harm satellites that we rely on every day and mitigate danger to astronauts near Earth, at the Moon, or Mars,” Asal Naseri, acting associate flight director for heliophysics at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.
The Solar Transition Region Ultraviolet Explorer (STRUVE) is another NCAR-led NASA mission to study the Sun’s chromosphere and corona, expected to launch in 2029 and gather data on the regions where the energy that powers solar storms builds up before being released.
“The chromosphere is a really important part of the solar atmosphere when it comes to storage and release of magnetic energy,” Alfred de Wijn, a scientist at NCAR and STRUVE’s principal investigator, said in a statement. “We know that the magnetic field of the photosphere connects to the heliosphere, but we don’t know how it makes its way through the chromosphere. We’re interested in what’s actually going on in that middle layer and seeing how the magnetic field changes leading up to eruptions.”
What’s Next for NICAR
With the fate of NCAR hanging in limbo, it’s not clear whether the proposed spacecraft will get to observe our host star. Vought’s statement suggested that approved research activities would be taken up by other organizations, but the OMB has not shared how it will make those decisions.
“[R]esearch conducted at NCAR informs our understanding of space weather hazards caused by solar storms and the atmospheric properties of other planets in and beyond our solar system,” American Astronomical Society (AAS) president Dara Norman said earlier this month. “The AAS requests that Congress exercise its oversight authority and investigate the basis for and process of NSF’s decision making about NCAR.”
US lawmakers have supported legislation to reverse the White House’s proposed cuts to scientific research at NASA and other agencies, and face a January 30 deadline to enact spending bills that would settle the issue.
After a rudderless year and an exodus of around 4,000 employees due to Trump administration cuts, NASA got what may be its first piece of good news recently. On December 17, the Senate confirmed billionaire Jared Isaacman as the agency’s new administrator. He now holds the power to rehabilitate a battered engine of scientific research, or steer it towards even more disruption.
Considering the caliber of President Trump’s other appointees, Isaacman is probably the best candidate for the job. Outside of being a successful entrepreneur, he has flown fighter jets and been to space twice as part of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn private missions. One of those flights saw him complete the first commercial space walk, and travel farther from Earth than any human since the end of the Apollo program.
“Perfect is the enemy of the good. Isaacman checks a lot of boxes,” says Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee and the founder of NASA Watch, a blog dedicated to the agency. “He’s passed every requirement to fly in a spacecraft that American astronauts at NASA are required to pass. He also went out of his way to have a diverse crew, and shove as much science as he could in those missions.”
And yet if you’re a NASA employee or just someone who cares about the agency’s work, there are still plenty of reasons to be concerned for its future. When Trump first nominated Isaacman in the spring, the billionaire wrote a 62-page document detailing his vision for NASA. In November, Politicoobtained a copy of that plan, titled Project Athena.
To some insiders, Project Athena painted a picture of someone who, at least at the time when it was written, fundamentally misunderstood how NASA works and how scientific discovery is funded in the US and elsewhere. It also suggests Isaacman may be more open to Trump’s NASA agenda than would appear at first glance.
When asked about the plan by Politico, one former NASA official characterized it as “bizarre and careless.” Another called it “presumptuous,” given many of the proposed changes to the agency’s structure would require Congressional approval. In one section, Isaacman recommended taking “NASA out of the taxpayer funded climate science business and [leaving] it for academia to determine.” In another section, he promised to evaluate the “relevance and ongoing necessity” of every agency center, particularly NASA’s iconic Jet Propulsion Laboratory, saying the facility and others must increase the “output and time to science KPI.”
A lot has changed since Isaacman first wrote that document. It came before the workforce cuts, before the future of Goddard Space Flight Center became uncertain and before Trump surprised everyone by renominating Isaacman. But during his Senate testimony earlier this month, the billionaire said “I do stand behind everything in the document, even though it was written seven months ago. I think it was all directionally correct.”
He did appear to distance himself from some viewpoints expressed in or inferred by Project Athena, however. Isaacman stated that “anything suggesting that I am anti-science or want to outsource that responsibility is simply untrue.” He also came out against the administration’s plan to cut NASA’s science budget nearly in half, claiming the proposals would not lead to “an optimal outcome.”
One thing is clear, Isaacman is not your typical bureaucrat. “One of the pitfalls of some prior NASA administrators has been that they’ve shown too much reverence for the internal processes and bureaucratic structure of the agency to the detriment of decision-making and performance,” said Casey Drier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for the exploration and study of space. “Isaacman has positioned himself as the opposite of that. Clearly, that’s something that could lead to a lot of political and congressional challenges if taken too far.”
Even if Isaacman doesn’t follow through on any of the proposals made in Project Athena, there’s only so much a NASA administrator — even one sympathetic to civil servants working under them — can do.
“Once a budget request goes out publicly, everyone in the administration has to defend it. Anything he does will have to be internal and private,” Drier explains. “He never explicitly criticized the administration during his hearing. He’s also coming relatively late in the budget process.”
A lot of NASA’s future will depend on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is responsible for implementing the president’s agenda across the executive branch. As a direct result of guidance the OMB issued over the summer, NASA awarded 25 percent fewer new grants in 2025 than it did on average between 2020 and 2024.
“The OMB has added layers of requirements that scientists now have to go through to spend the money they’ve already been allocated. The administration has worked against its own stated goals of efficiency,” Drier said. “Isaacman can’t solve that himself. He can’t tell the OMB what to do. That’s going to be a serious challenge.”
Looming over everything is the fact NASA still does not have a full-year budget for 2026. Congress has until January 30 to fund NASA and the rest of the federal government before the short-term funding bill it passed on November 12 runs out. “On paper, the official policy of the administration is still to terminate a third of NASA’s scientific capability,” Drier points out.
There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic. Publicly, both the House and Senate have come out against Trump’s funding cuts. And some science missions that were slated to be cancelled, such as OSIRIS-APEX, have been approved for another full year of operations.
What NASA needs now is someone who will, as Drier puts it, “vigorously advocate” for the agency in whatever way they can. It remains to be seen if that’s Jared Isaacman.
STARTS RIGHT NOW. AND SPLASHDOWN. CREW NINE BACK ON EARTH. BACK ON EARTH. BREAKING AS WE COME ON THE AIR AT SEVEN. WE JUST HEARD IT. HAVE SPLASHDOWN. NEEDHAM NATICK. SONNY WILLIAMS AND FELLOW ASTRONAUT BUTCH WILMORE ARE FINALLY BACK ON EARTH. MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS AFTER. ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED. AND TAKE A LOOK AT THIS. THIS IS NEW VIDEO INTO US JUST FROM A FEW MINUTES AGO. THAT IS SONNY WILLIAMS BEING HELPED FROM THE CAPSULE ONTO HER FEET ON THE SALVAGE SHIP THAT EIGHT DAY MISSION FINALLY COMING TO AN END AFTER 286 DAYS. THANKS FOR JOINING US TONIGHT, EVERYONE. I’M ED HARDING AND I’M MARIA STEPHANOS. WE DO HAVE TEAM COVERAGE OF THIS LANDING. SONNY’S NEEDHAM NEIGHBORS WATCHING ALL OF IT. LET’S BEGIN WITH OUR DANAE BUCCI OUTSIDE OF THE SUNITA WILLIAMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. IN THE SENSE OF PRIDE NEEDHAM FEELS FOR SONNY WILLIAMS IS EVIDENT, AND EVERYONE IS LOOKING FORWARD TO HER SAFE RETURN HOME. WE’RE BOTH VERY, VERY EXCITED TO HAVE HER BACK ON HER SAFELY. SONNY WILLIAMS HAS BEEN IN SPACE SO LONG, HER MOTHER, BONNIE PANDYA AND HER OLDER SISTER DEENA ARE ANXIOUSLY WAITING FOR HER RETURN. I FEEL LIKE, YOU KNOW, WE’RE A VERY ADAPTABLE AND WE WERE LIKE, GETTING USED TO SEEING HER EVERY WEEK ON THE SPACE STATION. IT’S BEEN AN UNEXPECTED NINE MONTH OUTER SPACE MISSION FOR THE NEEDHAM NATIVE. MY FAMILY MIGHT MAY BE A LITTLE UPSET, MAYBE A LITTLE CONCERNED, BUT USUALLY ASTRONAUT FAMILIES KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AND KNOW THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT COULD HAPPEN. THINGS GO WRONG ON ALMOST EVERY MISSION. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT SONNY IS LIKELY GOING THROUGH. MORE THAN RETIRED ASTRONAUT CHARLES CAMARDA, AND YOU’RE JUST ANTICIPATING SEEING YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR FRIENDS AND TELLING ALL THOSE GREAT STORIES. HE WORKED ALONGSIDE SONNY AND HER PARTNER BUTCH WILMORE FOR YEARS. BUTCH AND SONNY ARE THE TWO MOST POSITIVE PEOPLE IN THE ASTRONAUT OFFICE. THEY’RE ALWAYS SMILING. THEY’RE SO EXPERIENCED, THEY’RE PROS. BUT BEING IN SPACE FOR NINE MONTHS CAN HAVE A HUGE IMPACT ON THE BODY. THE HEART DOESN’T HAVE TO PUSH AGAINST GRAVITY, SO THE HEART GETS WEAKER. MUSCULOSKELETAL CHANGES, SO THE BONES BECOME WEAKER IN SPACE. DOCTOR LUCA PIZZA IS ON MASS GENERAL SPACE MEDICINE DIVISION. HE SAYS AS SOON AS SONNY AND HER PARTNER, BUTCH LAND OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA, THE TWO WILL BE MET WITH A TEAM OF DOCTORS. SO THE BODY’S GOTTEN USED TO NOT PUMPING THE BLOOD SO HARD IT’S GOTTEN USED TO NOT HOLDING THE BODY UP AGAINST GRAVITY. IT’S GOT TO RELEARN ALL THOSE THINGS. DOCTOR SAYS IT WILL TAKE MONTHS FOR BOTH BUTCH AND SONNY’S BODIES TO ACCLIMATE BACK TO EARTH. WE’RE LIVE IN NEEDHAM DANAE BUCCI WCVB, NEWSCENTER FIVE. AND A WATCH PARTY IS STILL GOING ON AT THIS HOUR. RIGHT AT SONNY’S HOMETOWN OF NEEDHAM. PEOPLE THERE CHEERED. WE COULD HEAR THEM FROM HERE. SO EXCITED TO HAVE THE WILLIAMS BACK HOME. OUR SONNY WILLIAMS BACK HOME. OUR JOHN ATWATER CONTINUES TONIGHT LIVE AT THE COMMON ROOM. JOHN AND MARIA. YEAH, SO MANY ROUNDS OF CHEERING TONIGHT. THE LATEST JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO WHEN WE SAW SONNY WILLIAMS EMERGE FROM THAT CAPSULE ABOUT AN HOUR AFTER SPLASHDOWN. SO IT’S BEEN A LOT OF EXCITEMENT HERE. YOU CAN SEE DOZENS OF PEOPLE HERE STILL AT THE COMMON ROOM TONIGHT. THEY ALL CAME HERE TO EXPERIENCE THIS TOGETHER BECAUSE, WOW, IT HAS BEEN JUST A NINE MONTH ODYSSEY FOR THESE ASTRONAUTS UP THERE IN SPACE, ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE UP THERE FOR EIGHT DAYS, BUT IT TOOK A LOT LONGER TO GET THEM HOME. WHILE THEY ARE HOME TONIGHT. AND YOU CAN SEE ALL THE CHEERING HERE IN THE COMMON ROOM HERE IN NEEDHAM SONNY WILLIAMS HOMETOWN. WE SPOKE WITH A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER OVER AT SUNITA WILLIAMS ELEMENTARY. SHE AND HER STUDENTS HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS JOURNEY, AND SHE IS SO RELIEVED. TONIGHT. I WENT TO HER FIRST TWO LAUNCH ATTEMPTS THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT, AND I DIDN’T GET TO GO TO THE LAST ONE WHERE SHE DID GO UP. BUT I’VE BEEN WATCHING AND FOLLOWING MY CLASS WATCHES AND FOLLOWS. THEY WERE SO EXCITED TODAY AND NOW I’M LIKE OVER THE TOP, OVER THE MOON AND SO EXCITED. I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE SHE’S BACK. CAN’T BELIEVE SHE’S BACK AFTER SO LONG. THERE WERE TEARS IN THAT TEACHER’S EYES BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS JOURNEY. THE SCHOOL REALLY ALL OF NEEDHAM SONNY WILLIAMS, OF COURSE IN CONTACT WITH THE STUDENTS HERE IN THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, AND THEY ARE JUST LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT DAY WHEN SONNY COMES BACK HERE TO NEEDHAM FOR A
The year in space: Here are the top space stories of 2025
From private space tourism to secret moons to new images of our very old observable universe, 2025 was an exciting year in space. The privatization of space travel continued apace, with companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin making strides this year. Despite privatization and looming funding cuts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its various projects and endeavors still managed to surprise us and expand our knowledge of our solar system. Check out the 10 best space stories from the past year:No. 1 — The space saga of Butch and SuniWithout a doubt, the space story that filled the most airtime this year was the tale of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. In June 2024, the pair signed on for a NASA mission to conduct a crew flight test of Boeing’s Starliner craft, which had previously only been used for uncrewed tests between Earth and the International Space Station. The mission was meant to last eight days — but ended up lasting more than nine months. The stranded astronauts became space celebrities and brought renewed attention to spaceflight during a time when space travel has morphed into a blend of public-private partnerships. The astronauts were eventually brought home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 vessel in March, marking a success for SpaceX but a blow to Boeing in the private space race.Watch video of Williams and Wilmore splashing down back to Earth in the video player above.No. 2 — Perseverance finds possible hints of ancient life on MarsNASA’s Perseverance rover has been roaming the Martian surface and collecting samples since 2021. But in the summer of 2024, the rover collected rock samples from a dried riverbed near the Jezero Crater with “leopard spots.” This year, scientists said those spots could suggest the existence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. “All we can say is one of the possible explanations is microbial life, but there could be other ways to make this set of features that we see,” a researcher told The Associated Press.However, this story is not over. More testing is needed to confirm what the samples contain, meaning they need to be retrieved from Mars and brought back to labs on Earth. A Mars Sample Return trip was hopefully scheduled for the early 2030s, but various factors, including President Donald Trump’s reorganized budget plan for NASA, mean that the return expedition is on hold indefinitely. For now, Perseverance and a potential secret to ancient life sit waiting in a rocky Martian desert.No. 3 — NASA probe takes closest-ever images of sunThe Parker Solar Probe, the fastest human-made object in the universe, is on a mission to “touch the Sun” — and it’s getting pretty close. In December 2024, the probe made its closest pass yet of the solar atmosphere, traveling at a speed of 430,000 mph. On Jan. 1, 2025, it sent back the closest images of the Sun ever captured, specifically of solar wind approximately 3.8 million miles from the surface.No. 4 — NASA’s Webb telescope discovers new moon orbiting UranusIt’s not every day you find a new moon. Using NASA’s Webb space telescope, a team from the Southwest Research Institute studying the rings and moons of Uranus made a stunning discovery — a small moon, only about 6 miles wide, had been “hiding” close to the seventh planet this whole time. The discovery joins the planet’s 28 existing moons, designated S/2025 U1. However, all of Uranus’ moons are named after characters from the works of either William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope, so it will have a colorful literary name in no time.No. 5 — Third-ever interstellar object tears through our solar systemThe astronomical talk of the town this year was definitely 3I/ATLAS. First spotted by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope in Chile, the comet started as a rapidly moving dot appearing in the sky. After NASA and the European Space Agency retraced its steps, it was confirmed that the comet was actually from outside our solar system — only the third known such object. While it was only briefly close to Earth near the end of this year, astronomers stole a few glances while they could. 3I/ATLAS is currently tracing its long path out of and away from our solar system — so long and farewell.No. 6 — Space tourism, or Katy Perry in spaceSpace tourism also had quite a year in 2025. In April, pop star Katy Perry and TV personality Gayle King boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepherd rocket with an all-female crew, a first for space travel. The technicality here is that New Shepherd is a reusable rocket, capable of vertical takeoffs and landings, designed to deliver tourists past the Karman Line, which is defined as the edge of space. It is also where you begin to experience weightlessness in atmospheric travel. Perry was reportedly so moved by the experience of entering the thermosphere that she couldn’t help singing “What A Wonderful World.” In other news, Blue Origin also recently sent the first paraplegic person into space, and SpaceX’s Fram2 mission saw four space tourists make a three-day trip around Earth’s poles.No. 7 — A nuclear reactor on the moon? It’s less crazy than it soundsActing NASA Administrator Sean Duffy made headlines earlier this year with an ambitious announcement concerning NASA’s wishes to put a nuclear reactor on Earth’s moon in the near future. While it does sound like the setup for a supervillain’s lair, the plan is actually quite practical. The name of the game in space exploration in the 21st century has become about repetition and reliability — typified by the reusable rockets favored by private space companies. NASA’s upcoming moon mission, Artemis III, will require a lot of fuel and power, especially if NASA wants to eventually station astronauts there. Add in the fact that China and Russia have announced a joint space venture to place a nuclear reactor on the moon. Before long, the international powers will be in a new space race. The moon is also becoming a critical juncture in the effort to reach Mars — the rocky satellite’s low gravity would make space missions easier. In that way, stating a goal of putting a nuclear reactor on the moon is the first step to reaching Mars, another stated goal of NASA. And for a country — and a species — that put a man on the moon only 56 years ago, anything might be possible.No. 8 — India, Poland and Hungary: Welcome to the ISSIt was a celebration on the International Space Station this summer when three astronauts from countries never before represented on the space station arrived. The last time anyone from India, Poland or Hungary traveled to orbit was in the 1970s and ‘80s, with the Soviet Space Program. While each of these countries have their own space programs, these true newcomers to the ISS came via Axiom Space, a Houston-based company that charters flights to the station. Axiom is also positioning itself as a potential replacement for the ISS when it is retired and decommissioned in 2030, carving out a niche in the private space race.No. 9 — ‘Cosmic treasure chest’: Say hello to the Vera C. Rubin ObservatoryThe summer of 2025 saw the debut of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the largest camera ever built, located on a mountaintop in Chile. According to the acting director of the National Science Foundation, the telescope “will capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined.” That’s quite a claim, but Rubin already has the legwork to back it up — as part of its debut, it spotted 2,104 never-before-seen asteroids. The observatory also released a dramatic video showing the scale of its capability: the cosmic pan displays about 10 million galaxies in the camera’s wide view, which is only 0.05% of the 20 billion galaxies the observatory will map over 10 years.No. 10 — Space is now a battlefieldAside from international cooperation and discovery, space has also become a new frontier for something else: warfare. In the Russia/Ukraine war this past year, Ukraine accused Russian operators of hijacking a crucial satellite, replacing its broadcast with film of Russian military parades. More recently, there has been chatter of a Russian anti-satellite weapon, which one U.S. representative likened to “the Cuban Missile Crisis in space.”
From private space tourism to secret moons to new images of our very old observable universe, 2025 was an exciting year in space. The privatization of space travel continued apace, with companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin making strides this year. Despite privatization and looming funding cuts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its various projects and endeavors still managed to surprise us and expand our knowledge of our solar system. Check out the 10 best space stories from the past year:
No. 1 — The space saga of Butch and Suni
NASA/AP via CNN Newsource
Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose on the International Space Station.
Without a doubt, the space story that filled the most airtime this year was the tale of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. In June 2024, the pair signed on for a NASA mission to conduct a crew flight test of Boeing’s Starliner craft, which had previously only been used for uncrewed tests between Earth and the International Space Station. The mission was meant to last eight days — but ended up lasting more than nine months. The stranded astronauts became space celebrities and brought renewed attention to spaceflight during a time when space travel has morphed into a blend of public-private partnerships. The astronauts were eventually brought home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 vessel in March, marking a success for SpaceX but a blow to Boeing in the private space race.
Watch video of Williams and Wilmore splashing down back to Earth in the video player above.
No. 2 — Perseverance finds possible hints of ancient life on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has been roaming the Martian surface and collecting samples since 2021. But in the summer of 2024, the rover collected rock samples from a dried riverbed near the Jezero Crater with “leopard spots.” This year, scientists said those spots could suggest the existence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. “All we can say is one of the possible explanations is microbial life, but there could be other ways to make this set of features that we see,” a researcher told The Associated Press.
However, this story is not over. More testing is needed to confirm what the samples contain, meaning they need to be retrieved from Mars and brought back to labs on Earth. A Mars Sample Return trip was hopefully scheduled for the early 2030s, but various factors, including President Donald Trump’s reorganized budget plan for NASA, mean that the return expedition is on hold indefinitely. For now, Perseverance and a potential secret to ancient life sit waiting in a rocky Martian desert.
No. 3 — NASA probe takes closest-ever images of sun
The Parker Solar Probe, the fastest human-made object in the universe, is on a mission to “touch the Sun” — and it’s getting pretty close. In December 2024, the probe made its closest pass yet of the solar atmosphere, traveling at a speed of 430,000 mph. On Jan. 1, 2025, it sent back the closest images of the Sun ever captured, specifically of solar wind approximately 3.8 million miles from the surface.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. El Moutamid (SwRI), M. Hedman (University of Idaho)
This Near Infrared Camera image shows the moon, designated S/2025 U1, as well as 13 of the 28 other known moons orbiting the planet.
It’s not every day you find a new moon. Using NASA’s Webb space telescope, a team from the Southwest Research Institute studying the rings and moons of Uranus made a stunning discovery — a small moon, only about 6 miles wide, had been “hiding” close to the seventh planet this whole time. The discovery joins the planet’s 28 existing moons, designated S/2025 U1. However, all of Uranus’ moons are named after characters from the works of either William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope, so it will have a colorful literary name in no time.
No. 5 — Third-ever interstellar object tears through our solar system
NASA/ESA/David Jewitt (UCLA) via CNN Newsource
Hubble captured this image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on July 21.
The astronomical talk of the town this year was definitely 3I/ATLAS. First spotted by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope in Chile, the comet started as a rapidly moving dot appearing in the sky. After NASA and the European Space Agency retraced its steps, it was confirmed that the comet was actually from outside our solar system — only the third known such object. While it was only briefly close to Earth near the end of this year, astronomers stole a few glances while they could. 3I/ATLAS is currently tracing its long path out of and away from our solar system — so long and farewell.
No. 6 — Space tourism, or Katy Perry in space
Blue Origin via CNN
The all-female crew of Blue Origin’s New Shepherd.
Space tourism also had quite a year in 2025. In April, pop star Katy Perry and TV personality Gayle King boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepherd rocket with an all-female crew, a first for space travel. The technicality here is that New Shepherd is a reusable rocket, capable of vertical takeoffs and landings, designed to deliver tourists past the Karman Line, which is defined as the edge of space. It is also where you begin to experience weightlessness in atmospheric travel. Perry was reportedly so moved by the experience of entering the thermosphere that she couldn’t help singing “What A Wonderful World.” In other news, Blue Origin also recently sent the first paraplegic person into space, and SpaceX’s Fram2 mission saw four space tourists make a three-day trip around Earth’s poles.
No. 7 — A nuclear reactor on the moon? It’s less crazy than it sounds
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy made headlines earlier this year with an ambitious announcement concerning NASA’s wishes to put a nuclear reactor on Earth’s moon in the near future. While it does sound like the setup for a supervillain’s lair, the plan is actually quite practical. The name of the game in space exploration in the 21st century has become about repetition and reliability — typified by the reusable rockets favored by private space companies. NASA’s upcoming moon mission, Artemis III, will require a lot of fuel and power, especially if NASA wants to eventually station astronauts there. Add in the fact that China and Russia have announced a joint space venture to place a nuclear reactor on the moon.
Before long, the international powers will be in a new space race. The moon is also becoming a critical juncture in the effort to reach Mars — the rocky satellite’s low gravity would make space missions easier. In that way, stating a goal of putting a nuclear reactor on the moon is the first step to reaching Mars, another stated goal of NASA. And for a country — and a species — that put a man on the moon only 56 years ago, anything might be possible.
No. 8 — India, Poland and Hungary: Welcome to the ISS
It was a celebration on the International Space Station this summer when three astronauts from countries never before represented on the space station arrived. The last time anyone from India, Poland or Hungary traveled to orbit was in the 1970s and ‘80s, with the Soviet Space Program. While each of these countries have their own space programs, these true newcomers to the ISS came via Axiom Space, a Houston-based company that charters flights to the station. Axiom is also positioning itself as a potential replacement for the ISS when it is retired and decommissioned in 2030, carving out a niche in the private space race.
No. 9 — ‘Cosmic treasure chest’: Say hello to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory via CNN Newsource
This composite image combines 678 separate images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory to show faint details like clouds of gas and dust in the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula.
The summer of 2025 saw the debut of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the largest camera ever built, located on a mountaintop in Chile. According to the acting director of the National Science Foundation, the telescope “will capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined.” That’s quite a claim, but Rubin already has the legwork to back it up — as part of its debut, it spotted 2,104 never-before-seen asteroids. The observatory also released a dramatic video showing the scale of its capability: the cosmic pan displays about 10 million galaxies in the camera’s wide view, which is only 0.05% of the 20 billion galaxies the observatory will map over 10 years.
No. 10 — Space is now a battlefield
Aside from international cooperation and discovery, space has also become a new frontier for something else: warfare. In the Russia/Ukraine war this past year, Ukraine accused Russian operators of hijacking a crucial satellite, replacing its broadcast with film of Russian military parades. More recently, there has been chatter of a Russian anti-satellite weapon, which one U.S. representative likened to “the Cuban Missile Crisis in space.”
Four astronauts in training to fly around the moon early next year strapped into their Orion spacecraft this weekend for a dress rehearsal countdown in a major milestone toward launch.
Based on repeated stops and starts seen on NASA’s countdown clock, the complex test originally planned for late November, ran into problems at various points on Saturday. NASA provided no details, but Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman said that overall, the test went well.
The Artemis 2 astronauts head for their Space Launch System rocket Saturday for a practice countdown to rehearse launch day procedures before a flight around the moon early next year. Left to right: Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA crewmates Christina Koch, Victor Glover and mission commander Reid Wiseman.
NASA
“Extremely successful day in our spacecraft #Integrity,” Wiseman said in a post on X. “Did everything go perfectly? Absolutely not. But this vehicle and our team showed us they’re up to the challenge. Launch is getting very close.”
Launch is tentatively targeted for early February, but the schedule is extremely tight and the flight may slip to early March. No decisions are expected until after the first of next year.
In any case, Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, wearing bright orange pressure suits, strapped into their Orion capsule using the same procedures they’ll follow on launch day.
Such “countdown demonstration tests” have traditionally taken place shortly before launch with the rocket and crew ship already on the launch pad. But for Saturday’s test, the astronauts boarded their spacecraft atop NASA’s huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket inside the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.
The Artemis 2 Orion crew capsule, inside a protective launch shroud, and its escape rocket are visible amid service platforms inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. Unseen is the 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket the crew capsule is mounted atop. The Artemis 2 crew strapped into the Orion Saturday for a dress rehearsal countdown.
NASA
Over the course of the exercise, the astronauts and the launch control team worked through the same countdown procedures they will follow on launch day, ending less than a minute before the clocks would normally hit zero.
Five launch opportunities are available in February when the moon and Earth are in the proper relative positions. The first such opportunity comes on Feb. 6. To make that date, the SLS rocket and Orion would have to be rolled from the assembly building to pad 39B in mid January, setting the stage for a critical fueling test that must go well before NASA can proceed to launch.
Given the amount of work remaining to complete preparations, sources say NASA may opt to delay the flight to early March.
Whenever it takes off, the flight plan calls for the Orion and its crew to spend 25 hours in an elliptical orbit around Earth to test spacecraft life support, propulsion and navigation systems.
The crew plans to fly in close proximity to the SLS rocket’s upper stage to test the Orion’s maneuvering systems and rendezvous procedures that will be needed for eventual moon landing missions.
An uncrewed Orion carried out a similar loop around the moon during the Artemis 1 mission in November 2022. But the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft was not equipped with a full life support system and it did not carry out thruster firings like those needed for a rendezvous.
Once the testing is complete, the Artemis 2 Orion will leave Earth orbit on a “free return” trajectory that will carry the crew around the moon and back to a Pacific Ocean splashdown. The ship will not go into orbit around the moon.
But Artemis 2 will still be the first piloted trip back to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, carrying Wiseman and his crewmates farther from Earth than any other humans have ever traveled.
Artemis 2 astronauts Victor Glover (foreground) and commander Reid Wiseman suit up before strapping into their Orion capsule for a practice countdown. Not seen are crewmates Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
NASA
The flight will set the stage for Artemis 3, carrying yet-to-be-named astronauts to the surface of the moon near the lunar south pole, NASA hopes, in 2028.
The Artemis 3 flight originally was planned for 2024, a target set during the first Trump administration. But the mission has been repeatedly delayed by processing problems, slowdowns during the COVID pandemic, Super Heavy-Starship testing and work to develop the lunar lander, known by NASA as the Human Landing System, or HLS.
The current 2028 target was set in the past few weeks when it became apparent the space agency would not be ready in time for the most recent previous target of 2027.
China also plans to land its own “taikonauts” on the moon by 2030, creating a new space race of sorts, one that NASA vows to win.
In a space-age milestone, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a wheelchair-using engineer and handicap advocate to the edge of space Saturday, a 10-minute trip that allowed her to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness more than 65 miles above Earth.
Michaela Benthaus, a German aerospace engineer who suffered a spinal cord injury in a 2018 mountain biking accident, joined a retired SpaceX manager and four entrepreneurs for the up-and-down flight to a point just above the so-called “boundary” of space.
“It was the coolest experience!” she said after landing, joking about turning upside down in weightlessness. “I didn’t only like the view and the microgravity, but I also liked the going up. That was so cool, every stage of going up.”
German aerospace engineer and handicap advocate Michaela Benthaus greets well wishers and Blue Origin support personnel moments after being carried from the New Shepard spacecraft.
Blue Origin webcast
Benthaus was assisted during training and inside the Blue Origin capsule by Hans Koenigsmann, a former SpaceX manager and engineer who was instrumental in the development of that company’s workhorse Falcon family of rockets.
A fellow German by birth and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Koenigsmann helped arrange Benthaus’ flight after meeting her last year.
“I met Hans the first time online,” Benthaus said in a Blue Origin interview. “I just asked him, like, you know, you worked for so long for SpaceX, do you think that people like me can be astronauts?
“Then he reached out to Blue Origin and told me oh, Blue actually is very excited about it. Okay, I have my doubts on it, but let’s see. Thankfully it turned out we can do it. So Hans and me (ended) up flying as a team,” Benthaus continued.
Koenigsmann said Benthaus “basically inspired me to do this. It’s her drive that kind of convinced me I should do that, too, and to just experience something that I’ve seen from the outside for a long time.”
The New Shepard spacecraft blasts off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site.
Blue Origin webcast
Benthaus was able to make her own way from her wheelchair into the New Shepard capsule before launch, scooting along a bench extending from the hatch that was provided by Blue Origin. Koenigsmann was strapped in nearby to offer assistance during the flight if needed.
Running two days late because of last-minute technical issues, the countdown ticked smoothly to zero Saturday and the New Shepard blasted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch pad at 9:15 a.m. EST.
Accelerating straight up into a mostly clear sky, the capsule’s single-stage booster reached a velocity of nearly three times the speed of sound before its hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine shut down about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.
At that point, the New Shepard capsule was released to continue coasting upward on its own, and the crew, now weightless, was free to briefly unstrap and float about the cabin.
Benthaus’ legs were strapped together to keep them in place, but she, too, was free to enjoy the thrill of weightlessness as the New Shepard coasted up to a peak altitude of slightly more than 65 miles, well above the 62-mile-high point where aerodynamic forces no longer have any effect.
At that altitude, the “sky” is deep black and Earth’s horizon is sharply curved. Passengers are able to take in the view through the largest windows ever flown in space.
“Oh, my God,” one passenger could be heard exclaiming over the capsule’s radio.
“Incredible,” another said.
Falling back into the lower atmosphere, the crew was warned to get back in their seats to strap in before the onset of atmospheric deceleration. Maximum deceleration subjects New Shepard crews to about five times the normal pull of gravity.
The booster, meanwhile, followed a similar trajectory, falling tail first back toward the launch site. Nearing the ground, the BE-3 engine re-ignited, landing legs deployed and the rocket settled to an on-target touchdown on a concrete pad near the launch gantry.
The reusable New Shepard booster executed an on-target landing after propelling the New Shepard capsule out of the lower atmosphere.
Blue Origin webcast
The New Shepard came down under three large parachutes, landing in a cloud of dust near the booster and its launch pad. Blue Origin support personnel quickly reached the spacecraft to help the crew exit.
The New Shepard capsule touched down about 10-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.
Blue Origin webcase
Joining Benthaus and Koenigsmann aboard the New Shepard were physicist-investor Joey Hyde, entrepreneur Neal Milch, adventurer Jason Stansell and Adonis Pouroulis, a South African entrepreneur and mining engineer.
All six waved, smiling broadly as they climbed out of the capsule one at a time. Benthaus was last out, carried from the spacecraft by Koenigsmann and a member of Blue Origin’s recovery team to a nearby wheelchair.
“You should never give up on your dreams, right?,” she said after landing. “I just feel very lucky, and I’m very grateful to Blue and Hans and everyone who said yes to this journey.”
Blue Origin does not publicly disclose the cost of a New Shepard seat, but the price is thought to be upwards of $500,000 each. How Benthaus’ seat was financed was not revealed.
The Blue Origin NS-37 passengers, posing for a photo on the launch pad gantry. Left to right: Joey Hyde, Adonis Pouroulis, Hans Koenigsmann, Michaela Benthaus, Jason Stansell and Neal Milch.
Blue Origin
Saturday’s launch marked Blue Origin’s 16th New Shepard flight with passengers aboard since Bezos, his brother and two others blasted off on the first such flight in July 2021. Including Saturday’s flight, Blue Origin has now launched 92 men and women to space, including six who have flown twice.
While Benthaus was the first person with a significant physical handicap to fly in space, European Space Agency astronaut John McFall, who has a prosthetic leg, has been cleared for selection to a future flight to the International Space Station.
Benthaus said before launch the reaction to her flight aboard the New Shepard was mostly positive, saying she hopes more handicapped people might make their way to space.
The big question for NASA and other space agencies and private companies is not so much whether handicapped astronauts can carry out their duties in the weightless environment of space. It’s more about how they can handle an emergency that might require a speedy exit from their spacecraft, either on the ground or in space.
In an interview with CNN, Benthaus said “we’re thinking more and more about long-duration space missions; some of us want to go to the Mars in the future.”
“That’s a very long journey. And, yes, people can get a disability on the way. People can have a stroke or break their leg or get a spinal cord injury.”
In the end, she said, “people with disabilities actually bring value to a crew. … You develop a very special resilience.”
A supermassive black hole that’s 10 million times the mass of the Sun is hurtling through space, leaving a trail of gas that’s spawning newborn stars in its wake. Astronomers have long theorized about runaway black holes, but none have been observed until now.
The Webb space telescope confirmed the first runaway black hole, which broke away from its home galaxy for a speedy life on the run. The black hole is one of the fastest-moving objects observed in the cosmos, traveling at a speed of 2.2 million miles per hour (1,000 kilometers per second). At that speed, it could travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes, according to NASA.
Astronomers first observed a bright streak of glowing gas in 2023 using the Hubble Space Telescope, and follow-up observations with Webb confirmed it as a trail left behind by a runaway black hole. The discovery is detailed in a new study available on the pre-print server arXiv.
On the run
As it travels through space, the escaped black hole is plowing into gas ahead of it to create a massive bow shock. As the gas is heated from the motion of the black hole, it triggers the birth of new stars. The trail of newborn stars extends for 200,000 light-years behind the black hole, according to the study.
Black holes are normally housed at the center of their home galaxies. This one, however, was found approximately 230,000 light-years away from its galaxy. It must have been moving fast enough to escape the gravitational grip of its host.
So, how did the black hole make a run for it? The astronomers behind the new study believe it may have been the result of two galaxies merging together, providing a forceful kick that sent the black hole careening across the cosmos. Another possible scenario is that one of the two galaxies that merged together had a pair of binary black holes. When three black holes merge, the system becomes unstable, thereby forcing one of them out into space.
“It boggles the mind!” Pieter van Dokkum, a researcher at Yale University and lead author of the new study, told Space.com. “The forces that are needed to dislodge such a massive black hole from its home are enormous. And yet, it was predicted that such escapes should occur!”
Earlier this year, a powerful gamma-ray burst traveled through space from a very distant source in the cosmos. The explosion was traced back to the early universe, just millions of years after the Big Bang, but its origin remained unknown. By pointing the Webb telescope toward the ancient mystery, astronomers were able to identify the earliest known aftermath of a star’s tragic death.
The Webb space telescope observed a supernova that took place when the universe was 730 million years old, setting a new record for the oldest stellar explosion detected to date. With this new observation, Webb beat its own record of a star that exploded 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang.
The telescope’s recent observations confirmed the source of a highly energetic flash of light known as a gamma-ray burst, verifying data that had been collected by a fleet of telescopes around the world.
“Only Webb could directly show that this light is from a supernova,” Andrew Levan, an astrophysics professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands and lead author of a paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, said in a statement. “This observation also demonstrates that we can use Webb to find individual stars when the Universe was only 5% of its current age.”
Straight to the source
On March 14, the SVOM mission (Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor) was the first to detect a gamma-ray burst from a distant source in the universe. Within a few hours, three other telescopes were used to pinpoint the source’s location in the skies and estimate when it took place during the cosmic timeline.
“There are only a handful of gamma-ray bursts in the last 50 years that have been detected in the first billion years of the Universe,” Levan said. “This particular event is very rare and very exciting.”
Gamma-ray bursts typically last a few seconds and may be caused by the collision of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole. This particular one, however, lasted for 10 seconds, suggesting it likely was the result of the explosive death of a massive star.
Webb’s observations took place on July 1, roughly three months after the gamma-ray burst was first observed. That allowed time for the supernova to increase in brightness, making it easier for the telescope to spot. Supernovae usually brighten rapidly over the course of a few weeks. Since this one took place so early in the universe, however, its light was stretched as the universe expanded over time. As light stretches, it takes more time for the event to unfold.
Once astronomers honed in on the ancient supernova, they compared it to more recent ones that have taken place closer to us. To their surprise, they were very much alike.
Stars in the early universe contained fewer heavy elements compared to their modern counterparts; they were also more massive and lived for shorter periods of time. Therefore, the astronomers behind the recent findings expected the oldest known supernova to look a little different. “We went in with open minds,” Nial Tanvir, a professor at the University of Leicester and co-author of the paper, said in a statement. “And lo and behold, Webb showed that this supernova looks exactly like modern supernovae.”
The team of astronomers behind the study plan on enlisting Webb to observe the afterglow of distant gamma-ray bursts to learn more about galaxies and how they evolved over time. “That glow will help Webb see more and give us a ‘fingerprint’ of the galaxy,” said Levan.
Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
The crackling of electrical discharges was captured by a microphone on the rover, a French-led team reported Wednesday.
The researchers documented 55 instances of “mini lightning” over two Martian years, primarily during dust storms and dust devils. Almost all occurred on the windiest Martian sols, or days, during dust storms and dust devils.
Just inches in size, the electrical arcs occurred within 6 feet of the microphone perched atop the rover’s tall mast, part of a system for examining Martian rocks via camera and lasers. Sparks from the electrical discharges — akin to static electricity here on Earth — are clearly audible amid the noisy wind gusts and dust particles smacking the microphone.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped a picture of Mars on Aug. 27, 2003.
NASA/Handout via Reuters
Scientists have been looking for electrical activity and lightning at Mars for half a century, said the study’s lead author Baptiste Chide, of the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse.
“It opens a completely new field of investigation for Mars science,” Chide said, citing the possible chemical effects from electrical discharges. “It’s like finding a missing piece of the puzzle.”
The evidence is strong and persuasive, but it’s based on a single instrument that was meant to record the rover zapping rocks with lasers, not lightning blasts, said Cardiff University’s Daniel Mitchard, who was not involved in the study. What’s more, he noted in an article accompanying the study in the journal Nature, the electrical discharges were heard — not seen.
“It really is a chance discovery to hear something else going on nearby, and everything points to this being Martian lightning,” Mitchard said in an email. But until new instruments are sent to verify the findings, “I think there will still be a debate from some scientists as to whether this really was lightning,” he said.
“Like a thunderstorm on Earth, but barely visible with a naked eye”
Lightning has already been confirmed on Jupiter and Saturn, and Mars has long been suspected of having it too.
To find it, Chide and his team analyzed 28 hours of Perseverance recordings, documenting episodes of “mini lightning” based on acoustic and electric signals.
Electrical discharges generated by the fast-moving dust devils lasted just a few seconds, while those spawned by dust storms lingered as long as 30 minutes.
“It’s like a thunderstorm on Earth, but barely visible with a naked eye and with plenty of faint zaps,” Chide said in an email. He noted that the thin, carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere absorbs much of the sound, making some of the zaps barely perceptible.
Mars’ atmosphere is more prone than Earth’s to electrical discharging and sparking through contact among grains of dust and sand, according to Chide.
“The current evidence suggests it is extremely unlikely that the first person to walk on Mars could, as they plant a flag on the surface, be struck down by a bolt of lightning,” Mitchard wrote in Nature. But the “small and frequent static-like discharges could prove problematic for sensitive equipment.”
These aren’t the first Mars sounds transmitted by Perseverance. Earthlings have listened in to the rover’s wheels crunching over the Martian surface and the whirring blades of its no-longer-flying helicopter sidekick, Ingenuity.
Perseverance has been scouring a dry river delta at Mars since 2021, collecting samples of rock for possible signs of ancient microscopic life. NASA plans to return these core samples to Earth for laboratory analysis, but the delivery is on indefinite hold as the space agency pursues cheaper options.
Blue Origin’s Blue and Gold NASA satellites en route to study Mars
Earlier this month, Blue Origin launched its second heavy-lift New Glenn rocket that put two small NASA satellites onto a long, looping course to Mars. The satellites are aiming to learn more about how the sun has slowly blown away the red planet’s once-thick atmosphere.
The NASA-sponsored payload, managed by the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, is made up of two small, low-budget satellites known as Blue and Gold that make up the heart of the ESCAPADE mission — Escape, Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers. Mars launch windows typically open every two years when Earth and the red planet reach favorable positions in their orbits to permit direct flights using current rockets. The next such window opens in 2026.
Passing within 600 miles of Earth in November 2027, the ESCAPADE probes will make velocity-boosting gravity-assist flybys, augmented by onboard propulsion, to finally head for Mars. In all, the twin spacecraft will spend a full year in that initial kidney bean-shaped orbit out past the moon and back, and another 10 months in transit to Mars. The probes won’t reach the red planet until September 2027.
While the ESCAPADE mission is modest compared to Mars rovers and more sophisticated orbiters, the probes are designed to answer key questions about the evolution of the Martian atmosphere.
Mars once had a global magnetic field like Earth’s, but its molten core, which powered that field, mostly froze in place long ago, leaving only patchy, isolated remnants of that once-protective field in magnetized deposits.
Without a protective global field like Earth’s, the Martian atmosphere faces a constant barrage of high-speed electrons and protons blown away from the sun and from dense clouds of charged particles erupting from powerful solar storms.
A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off at 2:27 p.m. (9:27 a.m. GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 into orbit.The spacecraft carried NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. The craft docked at the International Space Station approximately three hours after liftoff at 5:34 p.m (12:34 p.m. GMT).All three are expected to spend about eight months at the orbiting outpost. NASA said this is the first spaceflight for Williams, a physicist, and Mikaev, a military pilot. This is the second flight for Kud-Sverchkov.At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations at the orbiting outpost aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth, NASA said.
MOSCOW —
A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.
A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off at 2:27 p.m. (9:27 a.m. GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 into orbit.
The spacecraft carried NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. The craft docked at the International Space Station approximately three hours after liftoff at 5:34 p.m (12:34 p.m. GMT).
All three are expected to spend about eight months at the orbiting outpost. NASA said this is the first spaceflight for Williams, a physicist, and Mikaev, a military pilot. This is the second flight for Kud-Sverchkov.
At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.
Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations at the orbiting outpost aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth, NASA said.
