At Houston event, NASA astronauts will discuss their recent space station missions
On Thursday, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Don Pettit will be in Houston to participate in ceremonies to welcome them back to Earth and will share highlights from their recent space mission, according to NASA officials.
Williams and Wilmore arrived after being stranded on the orbital laboratory for nine months.
Hague, Wilmore, Williams and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov returned to Earth on March 18 when their craft splashed safely off the western coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico after they spent months on the ISS, where people have continuously worked and lived for about 25 years now.
Petit, who launched on September 11 aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts, spent seven months in space on a research mission as a flight engineer and returned on April 19 -- his 70th birthday -- in Kazakhstan to Russia's southwest after he spent 590 days in orbit.
Williams and Wilmore traveled more than 121 million miles during their mission and spent 286 days in space with 4,576 completed orbits around Earth and logged hundreds of extra hours in space.
Hague and Gorbunov, who traveled over 72 million miles during their mission, spent 171 days in orbit.
The free, public event at Space Center Houston will begin at 6 p.m. local time, during which the space travelers will recognize "key mission contributors" during an award ceremony following the presentation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX, NASA scrub Crew-11 astronaut launch due to weather (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX scrubbed today's (July 31) launch attempt of the Crew-11 astronaut mission for NASA. Launch officials called the scrub just over a minute before liftoff, due to a bank of cumulus clouds that appeared over in the skies over NASA's Kennedy Space Center here. "Unfortunately, the weather is just not playing alongside with today's excitement on the launch for NASA SpaceX's Crew-11," NASA commentator Derrol Nail said during today's launch coverage. "We could literally see the clouds kind of going over top of our heads, getting close to the pad, and the standoff area is a 10-mile radius around the pad for these dark clouds, cumulous clouds, and that is a safety factor," Nail added. "That is because you don't want to send a rocket through a tall cloud like that — that could generate some energy from the rocket passing through it." SpaceX will try again on Friday (Aug. 1) at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 GMT). There's another chance on Saturday (Aug. 2) at 11:21 a.m. EDT (1521 GMT). When it launches, Crew-11 will see a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket take off from Launch Complex 39A at KSC. Atop the rocket is the company's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft making its sixth flight, a reuse record for Crew Dragon vehicles. The four crewmembers of Crew-11 are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Oleg Platonov of Russia's space agency Roscosmos. When it launches, Crew-11 will embark on a roughly 40-hour flight to catch up with the International Space Station, orbiting at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph) some 248 miles (400 kilometers) above the surface of Earth. As its name implies, Crew-11 will be the eleventh operational astronaut mission SpaceX has flown for NASA, through the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which sees NASA send astronauts to and from the ISS on private spacecraft. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches Crew-11 astronauts to the ISS for NASA on milestone Crew Dragon flight (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX launched its eleventh operational astronaut mission for NASA today (Aug. 1), sending the four Crew-11 astronauts on a flight toward the International Space Station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 GMT) today. Atop the rocket was the company's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft making its sixth flight, a reuse record for Crew Dragon vehicles. The launch occurred a day later than originally planned; SpaceX tried to get Crew-11 off the ground on Thursday (July 31) but had to scrub that attempt with about a minute left in the countdown clock due to intruding clouds. Just under eight minutes after launch, the mission's Falcon 9 booster came down for a landing at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC, creating a thunderous sonic boom audible for miles. This marked the last landing that will happen at LZ-1, which will now be retired. In March 2023, the U.S. Space Force announced that Launch Complex 13, where LZ-1 is located, will be leased to two private companies, Phantom Space and Vaya Space. The Space Force's announcement added that private providers like SpaceX can submit requests for landing zone capabilities at their own launch complexes, "which will then go through an extensive evaluation process." SpaceX still operates another booster landing site on the Cape, however, called Landing Zone 2. Crew-11 consists of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Oleg Platonov of Russia's space agency Roscosmos. This will be the first spaceflight for Crew-11 commander Cardman, who was originally scheduled to launch on the Crew-9 mission. Cardman was removed from that mission because Crew-9 ended up launching to the International Space Station (ISS) with only two astronauts on board in order to make room for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the return trip. The duo were left without a dedicated ride home after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that ferried them to the ISS on its first crewed test flight in June 2024 encountered leaks and propulsion issues. Fincke will be making his fourth trip to space on Crew-11 while serving as pilot, having previously flown three space shuttle missions to the ISS. As the most experienced spaceflyer, Fincke said he's looking forward to seeing the reactions of his crewmates, two of whom are making their first trip to orbit. "I remember how moving it was, and how breathtaking it was for me, and I want to share their joy in that," Fincke previously told Crew-11 marks the second spaceflight for mission specialist Kimiya Yui of Japan, who previously spent 142 days on the ISS during Expedition 44/45 in 2015. During that mission, Yui helped construct laboratory equipment in Japan's Kibo science module. Rounding out the crew is Russia's Oleg Platonov, who is making his first trip into space and serving as mission specialist. Once their spacecraft is docked safely on the ISS and the hatch is opened, the four Crew-11 astronauts will begin relieving the members of SpaceX's previous mission for NASA, Crew-10. Crew-11 docking is currently scheduled for 3 a.m. ET (0700 GMT) on Saturday (Aug. 2). NASA overlaps astronaut missions to the ISS as part of the agency's routine crew rotation in order to maintain a continuous presence on the space station. The Crew-10 and Crew-11 astronauts will overlap for about a week to ensure a smooth handover of science experiments and responsibilities, maintenance tasks and station operations. Related Stories: — SpaceX, NASA scrub Crew-11 astronaut launch due to weather (video) — SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the ISS: Live updates — Meet the SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts launching to the ISS After Crew-11 is settled in, the four Crew-10 astronauts — who launched in March 2025 — will make their way back down to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that brought them there. The Crew-11 astronauts will spend roughly six months aboard the orbital laboratory conducting science experiments that include simulating moon landings near the lunar south pole, testing how astronauts can protect their eyesight from the effects of microgravity, and studying how plant cells divide in space. In addition, the crew will conduct experiments to "produce a higher volume of human stem cells and generate on-demand nutrients," according to NASA. However, NASA is considering extending Crew Dragon missions to eight months, according to Dana Weigel, the International Space Station Program Manager at NASA. "We're looking at that right now for the Dragon flights, and so we are looking at the potential to extend this current flight, Crew-11," Weigel said during a prelaunch press conference on Wednesday (July 30). Aside from relieving the Crew-10 astronauts for their return journey home, Crew-11 will see the arrival of the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 mission in November 2025, which will welcome NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. A Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft is also expected to launch and dock during Crew-11's stay. As its name implies, Crew-11 is the eleventh operational astronaut mission SpaceX has flown for NASA, but the twelfth flight under the agency's Commercial Crew Program, in which NASA hired private companies to send astronauts to and from the ISS. The first Crew Flight Test of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 was also conducted under the program. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX's Crew-11 astronauts arrive at the International Space Station (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission have arrived at their orbital destination. Crew-11's Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday at 2:26 a.m. EDT (0626 GMT), less than 15 hours after it launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast. The hatches between the two spacecraft are expected to open around 4:45 a.m. EDT (0845 GMT), and a welcome ceremony will take place about an hour after that. The docking occurred five years to the day after the splashdown of SpaceX's first-ever crewed mission, the Demo-2 test flight, which sent NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS for a two-month stay. Demo-2 also employed the Crew Dragon Endeavour. Crew-11 is commanded by NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. Her crewmates are fellow NASA spaceflyer Mike Fincke, who's the Crew-11 pilot, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Oleg Platonov of Russia's space agency Roscosmos. The latter are both mission specialists. This is the first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov, the second for Yui and the fourth for Fincke. And it's the sixth trip into the final frontier for Endeavour, SpaceX's most-flown crew capsule. Related Stories: — SpaceX launches Crew-11 astronauts to the ISS for NASA on milestone Crew Dragon flight (video) — SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the ISS: Live updates — Meet the SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts launching to the ISS The Crew-11 quartet are joining seven people aboard the orbiting lab: JAXA's Takuya Onishi, commander of the station's current Expedition 73 mission; Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers and Jonny Kim of NASA; and cosmonauts Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. The Crew-11 astronauts will relieve Ayers, McClain, Onishi and Peskov, who arrived at the ISS in mid-March on SpaceX's Crew-10 mission. The Crew-10 quartet will head back home to Earth a few days from now, after spending some time and sharing some knowledge with their Crew-11 counterparts. As its name indicates, Crew-11 is the 11th operational astronaut mission SpaceX has flown to the ISS for NASA. SpaceX also has eight other crewed flights under its belt — Demo-2, four private efforts to the orbiting lab operated by the Houston company Axiom Space, and three free-flying missions to orbit (Inspiration4, Polaris Dawn and Fram2). Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:30 a.m. ET on Aug. 2 with news of successful docking. Solve the daily Crossword
