International Space Station

World News

An uncrewed Russian spacecraft docked at the space station loses cabin pressure

2:47pm February 11, 2023

by Juliana Kim

The incident does not pose a danger to the station's crew, Russian space officials said. The announcement came shortly after a new Russian cargo ship docked at the station.

The International Space Station had to move to dodge space junk

5:00am October 26, 2022

by James Doubek

A piece of what used to be a Russian satellite was coming uncomfortably close to the International Space Station. Space junk is a growing problem and has major implications for satellite services.

U.S. Space Shuttle Commander Terrence Wilcutt (right) and Mir Commander Anatoly Solovyev hug after opening the hatches between the space shuttle Endeavour and the Russian Space station Mir Saturday, Jan. 24, 1998, in this image from television

World News

Russia says it will quit the International Space Station after 2024

12:05pm July 26, 2022

by The Associated Press

NASA and other international partners hope to keep the space station running until 2030. Meanwhile, Russia says it will focus on building its own orbiting outpost.

The International Space Station depends on a mix of U.S. and Russian parts. "I hope we can hold it together as long as we can," says former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

Science

Russia's war in Ukraine is threatening an outpost of cooperation in space

5:10am May 23, 2022

For decades, U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have lived side-by-side aboard the International Space Station. Now some are wondering whether that partnership can withstand the war in Ukraine.

World News

Opinion: The weightlessness of peace

10:37am April 02, 2022

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon remarks on the cooperation between Americans and Russians working with the International Space Station, despite tensions on Earth over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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Expedition 66 crew members (left to right) Mark Vande Hei of NASA and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos are seen inside their Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan on Wednesday in Zhezk

A U.S. and 2 Russian astronauts return to Earth together following a trip to space

4:03pm March 30, 2022

by Joe Hernandez

A NASA astronaut and the Russian cosmonauts parachute-landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after a trip back to Earth from the International Space Station, in a rare instance of U.S.-Russia cooperation.

Russian cosmonauts (from left) Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev wear yellow at the International Space Station.

World News

Russian cosmonauts board Space Station wearing blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine

5:52pm March 19, 2022

by Deepa Shivaram

Wearing the colors Ukraine's flag has widely been seen as a way to support that country and oppose Russia's invasion.

The International Space Station is seen from NASA space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation in space on May 29, 2011.

What will happen to the International Space Station when it is retired?

10:21am February 03, 2022

by Joe Hernandez

NASA says the International Space Station will stop operating at the end of 2030. After that, the space agency plans to crash the football field-sized craft into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

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"By bringing archaeological perspectives to an active space domain, we're the first to show how people adapt their behavior to a completely new environment," Associate Professor Justin Walsh of Chapman University said of the experiment.

Archaeologists launch first-ever 'dig' into life on the International Space Station

11:42am January 20, 2022

by Vanessa Romo

The project, a first of its kind, aims to study the social and cultural dimensions of living in space and how people adapt their behavior when they're living in a completely new environment.

The International Space Station shown in orbit in 2011. Astronauts aboard the station were ordered to briefly take shelter after Russia conducted an orbital test of an anti-satellite missile that spewed potentially dangerous debris into orbit.

A Russian missile creates enough space junk to pose risk to astronauts for years

10:00am November 16, 2021

by Scott Neuman

The U.S. condemned the test, which blasted a cloud of debris into orbit, forcing astronauts aboard the ISS to spend two hours inside spacecraft that could return them to Earth in an emergency.