Tag: space station
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Soyuz MS-28 Returns NASA Astronaut Chris Williams After 241-Day Space Station Mission
The three crew members launched to the space station on November 27, 2025. The mission was the first spaceflight for both Williams and Mikaev, and the second for Kud-Sverchkov. Together they orbited the Earth 3,856 times and traveled more than 102 million miles before departing the station. The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft undocked at 2:03 a.m.…
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China Plans Expansion of Tiangong Space Station with New Module
China is preparing to expand its Tiangong space station by adding a new multifunctional module that will transform the orbital outpost from its current T-shaped configuration into a cross-shaped structure. The expansion represents the next phase of the station’s long-term development plan and is intended to increase scientific research capacity, support more frequent missions and…
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China Taps Commercial Launchers for Space Station Cargo
Which commercial launchers will serve China’s space station cargo missions? China has shortlisted four commercial rocket companies to launch a new low-cost cargo transport system for its Tianhe space station, marking a significant shift toward leveraging private sector capabilities for critical national infrastructure. The selection represents Beijing’s most direct integration of commercial launch providers into…
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Vehicle arrivals, science experiments, and maintenance keep Expedition 74 busy through April
Recent weeks aboard the International Space Station have been busy, with the Expedition 74 crew overseeing two vehicle arrivals, a departure, and an orbital reboost. The crew also completed several technology demonstrations, science experiments, and routine Station maintenance. NASA also announced the crew for its upcoming Crew-13 mission, which is expected to launch to the…
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Shenzhou 23 launches new crew to Tiangong space station
The Chinese space station Tiangong, permanently occupied since June 5, 2022, is about to receive a new set of crew members. Shenzhou 23 launched atop a Chang Zheng 2F (CZ-2F) from Site 91 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Inner Mongolia province of northwest China. Launch took place on Sunday, May 24, at…
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How to design a space station: Meet the Seattle company that’s helping define the look of the final frontier
This cutaway view shows the interior of the Starlab space station’s laboratory. (Starlab Illustration) How do you design a living space where there’s no up or down? That’s one of the challenges facing Teague, a Seattle-based design and innovation firm that advises space companies such as Blue Origin, Axiom Space and Voyager Technologies on how…
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Russia is about to do the most Russia thing ever with its next space station
For several years now, in discussing plans for its human spaceflight program beyond the International Space Station, Russian officials would proudly bring up the Russian Orbital Station, or ROS. The first elements of ROS were to launch in 2027 so it would be ready for human habitation in 2028. Upon completion in the mid-2030s, the…
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Shenzhou 22 launches uncrewed to Chinese Tiangong space station
The Shenzhou 22 mission, originally scheduled to fly next year, launched successfully on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 04:11 UTC from Site 901 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Inner Mongolia province. Shenzhou 22, mounted atop a Chang Zheng-2F rocket, launched without crew and safely docked autonomously with the Tiangong space station after a…
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Butch and Suni weren’t the only ones: the stories of astronauts “stranded” in space
After a planned eight day mission to the ISS that launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams splashed down near Florida over nine months later on March 18, 2025. The two astronauts missed family events, birthdays, and Christmas while engineers tried to determine whether Boeing’s Starliner capsule would be safe to return with…
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Sen: capturing Earth’s beauty from space in 4K
Sen is on a mission to democratize space through the use of high-quality video from above the Earth. The cameras it has launched into space so far include a free 4K video livestream from the International Space Station (ISS). NSF recently spoke with the company’s CEO, Charles Black, who hopes these views will be accessed…