Page 8 - Nasa

Sunita Williams' homecoming: How do astronauts survive a fiery re-entry?

With Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore set to return to Earth after nearly nine months in space, let's look at how the astronauts' return takes place

Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore close hatches as they gear up to leave ISS

The astronaut crew is scheduled to travel back to Earth alongside Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft

Remembering Kalpana Chawla: 11 lesser-known facts about the space pioneer

Born in Karnal, Haryana, Kalpana was the first Indian woman who went to space. In her memory, the first Indian water satellite was named 'Kalpana 1.' Here are 11 lesser-known facts about her

Dizziness, baby feet: Challenges astronauts face upon return to earth

It may be fun to watch astronauts float around inside the International Space Station, but the absence of gravity has its effects on long-duration space travellers, who experience dizziness, nausea and an unstable gait when they return to earth. NASA astronauts Sunita Willams and Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday onboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. For Williams and Wilmore, test pilots for Boeing's new Starliner capsule, the eight-day mission stretched to more than nine months as a series of helium leaks and thruster failures deemed their spacecraft unsafe and had to return empty in September. Astronauts who have travelled on space missions earlier have reported facing difficulty in walking, having bad eyesight, dizziness, and a condition called baby feet where space travellers lose the thick part of the skin on the soles that become soft like a baby's. "Once the astronaut returns to Earth, they are immediately for

SpaceX Dragon docks with ISS to bring back stranded Nasa astronauts

After SpaceX Dragon's link-up to the forward facing port of the station's Harmony module, the crew members aboard Dragon and the space station will start conducting standard leak checks

Nasa's stuck astronauts welcome newly arrived replacements to space station

Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA's two stuck astronauts. The four newcomers representing the US, Japan and Russia will spend the next few days learning the station's ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Indian-American Sunita Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June. Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing's first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month. The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift. Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements' brand new capsule needed extens

SpaceX, Nasa launch mission to bring back Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore

Mission also launched four crew members to ISS: Nasa astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov

Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore's return delayed as rocket faces glitch

According to an Associated Press report, the new crew consisting of four astronauts from the US, Japan, and Russia, will have to get to the ISS first before Williams and Willmore can head home

Nasa chief scientist Katherine Calvin, 22 others laid off under Trump order

Nasa has laid off chief scientist Katherine Calvin and 22 others under Donald Trump's orders as the agency begins a 'reduction in force', signalling a shift in priorities toward space exploration

Nasa's newest space telescope blasts off to map sky like never before

NASA's newest space telescope rocketed toward orbit Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time. SpaceX launched the Spherex observatory from California, putting it on course to fly over Earth's poles. Tagging along were four suitcase-size satellites to study the sun. The USD 488 million Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years, and how the universe expanded so fast in its first moments. Closer to home in our own Milky Way galaxy, Spherex will hunt for water and other ingredients of life in the icy clouds between stars where new solar systems emerge. The cone-shaped Spherex at 1,110 pounds (500 kilograms) or the heft of a grand piano will take six months to map the entire sky with its infrared eyes and wide field of view. Four full-sky surveys are planned over two years, as the telescope circles the globe from pole to pole

Blood moon lunar eclipse on March 13 & 14: Will it be visible from India?

Lunar eclipse 2025: The first lunar eclipse of 2025 will take place on March 13 and 14. The event is likely to last for around 65 minutes, and this event will also feature a "Blood Moon"

A gift that keeps giving: Athena's landing brings humanity closer to Moon

In the very long term, meaning decades down the line, space mining may be a highly profitable venture

'We are coming up to get you':Trump to Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore

US President Donald Trump outlined his plan to bring home stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, while criticising the Joe Biden administration for ignoring them

Private lander Athena may have fallen over near moon's south pole

A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over. Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the moon's south pole standing 15 feet (4.7 meters) tall or lying sideways like its first spacecraft from a year ago. Controllers rushed to turn off some of the lander's equipment to conserve power while trying to determine what went wrong. It was the second moon landing this week by a Texas company under NASA's commercial lunar delivery programme. Sunday's touchdown was a complete success. The company's newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned. The hourlong descent appeared to go well until the final approach when the laser navigation system began acting up. It took a while for Mission Control to confirm touchdown. We're on the surface, reported mission director and co-founder Tim Crain. A few minutes

Nasa powers down two instruments on Voyager spacecraft to save energy

NASA is switching off two science instruments on its long-running twin Voyager spacecraft to save power. The space agency said Wednesday an instrument on Voyager 2 that measures charged particles and cosmic rays will shut off later this month. Last week, NASA powered down an instrument on Voyager 1 designed to study cosmic rays. The energy-saving moves were necessary to extend their missions, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. The twin spacecraft launched in 1977 and are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn's moons, and Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune. Each spacecraft still has three instruments apiece to study the sun's protective bubble and the swath of space beyond. Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) from Earth and Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (20.92 billion ...

Nasa's 2 stranded astronauts nearing return after 9 months in space

NASA's two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month. They'll be joined on their SpaceX ride home by two astronauts who launched by themselves in September alongside two empty seats. During a news conference Tuesday, Wilmore said that while politics is part of life, it did not play into his and Williams' return, moved up a couple weeks thanks to a change in SpaceX capsules. President Donald Trump and SpaceX's Elon Musk said at the end of January that they wanted to accelerate the astronauts' return, blaming the previous administration. But Williams, in response to a question, did take issue with Musk's recent call to dump the space station in two years, rather than waiting until NASA's projected deorbit in 2031. She noted all the scientific research being ...

Nasa's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions delayed; Know about the next launch date

Nasa's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions have been delayed to March 6, allowing the agency more time to complete vehicle processing and prelaunch checkouts

Firefly's 'Blue Ghost' mission successfully lands on Moon's surface

Nicknamed 'Ghost Riders in the Sky,' Blue Ghost Mission 1 follows just over a year after the first-ever commercial lunar landing

New NASA data lowers asteroid 2024 YR4's Earth impact risk to just 0.004%

After estimating an initial 3.1 per cent impact probability, Nasa's latest calculations revealed that the asteroid 2024 YR4 has near-zero chances of hitting Earth in 2032

Never heard of Musk offer for early astronaut return: Ex-Nasa leader Melroy

The comments cast doubt on Musk's claims that his attempts to stage an early rescue mission were blocked by former US President Joe Biden's White House because of the billionaire's support of Trump