International Space Station

After delays due to bad weather back on Earth, Axiom-1 (Ax-1), history's first all-private mission to the International Space Mission (ISS), returned to Earth. At 1:06 pm EDT, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida.

History was made today when Axiom Mission 1, the first private crewed mission to the International Space Station, lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:17 am EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

With a view to shoring up the supply of scientific cargo to the International Space Station, NASA has awarded contracts for 12 further flights to SpaceX and Northrup Grumman, designed to keep the station stocked through to 2026.

NASA has released its updated plans that outline the International Space Station's final years leading up to its eventual disposal in 2030, when it will plunge into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up somewhere over the South Pacific Ocean.

When the first astronauts reach Mars, they will carry out heavy physical tasks after many months of traveling in weightlessness. New Atlas talked to Draper scholars Rachel Bellisle and Tom Abitante about technologies to help keep astronauts healthy.

Blue Origin and Sierra Space have revealed plans to place a commercially developed, owned, launched, and operated open-system architecture space station called Orbital Reef into low-Earth orbit between 2025 and 2030.

The ISS is about to receive its third robotic arm, which will be capable of "walking" around the Russian segment of the orbital outpost all by itself. It will do so hand-over-hand thanks to the flexibility afforded by its seven motorized joints.

The CRISPR gene-editing tool has been successfully used in space for the first time. Researchers onboard the International Space Station have edited colonies of yeast to study how they repair DNA damage, which could one day help protect astronauts.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have undertaken three spacewalks over a 10-day period in order to install and power up a new set of roll-out solar arrays to the exterior hull of the orbital outpost.

An advanced spacecraft under development by Boeing is set to swing back into action following a failed attempt to reach the International Space Station in 2019, ahead of crewed flights planned for later in the year.

Procter & Gamble is working with NASA to develop special detergents and washing machines to launder clothes in space. The company's Mission PGTide will test the detergent and other cleaning products aboard the International Space Station in 2022.

ESA is working on ways to make sharing unwashed underwear used in spacesuits a bit less horrible. The Austrian Space Forum will work with the Vienna Textile Lab to test textiles with improved anti-bacterial properties for suits used on long missions.