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By NASA
The Roscosmos Progress 92 cargo spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on July 5, 2025, for an automated docking to the orbital complex’s Poisk module.Credit: NASA NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station.
The unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 93 resupply spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 11:54 a.m. EDT (8:54 p.m. Baikonur time), Thursday, Sept. 11, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Live coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
After a two-day journey to the station, the spacecraft will dock autonomously to the aft port of the station’s Zvezda module at 1:27 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13. NASA’s rendezvous and docking coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more.
The Progress 93 spacecraft will remain docked to the space station for approximately six months before departing for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to dispose of trash loaded by the crew. Ahead of the spacecraft’s arrival, the Progress 91 spacecraft will undock from the Zvezda Service Module on Tuesday, Sept. 9. NASA will not stream the undocking.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology, and human innovation enabling research not possible on Earth. For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence aboard the orbiting laboratory, where astronauts have learned to live and work in space for extended periods of time. The space station is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy and NASA’s next great leaps in human exploration at the Moon and Mars.
Learn more about the International Space Station, its research, and crew, at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
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Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 05, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Johnson Space Center View the full article
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By Space Force
The Air Force Chaplain Corps wrapped up its annual summit, bringing together Religious Support Teams from across the Total Force to focus on spiritual readiness and alignment under the Chaplain Corps’ new motto: HC Ready!
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By NASA
From left, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi share a light moment during a group portrait inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module.Credit: NASA NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 12:05 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Aug. 7, for the undocking of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission from the International Space Station. Pending weather conditions, splashdown is targeted at 11:58 a.m., Friday, Aug. 8. Crew-10 will be the first mission to splash down off the California coast for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are completing a five-month science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory and will return time-sensitive research to Earth.
Mission managers continue monitoring weather conditions in the area, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends on spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. NASA and SpaceX will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-10 spacecraft undocking.
NASA’s live coverage of return and related activities will stream on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms.
NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to changed based on real-time operations):
Thursday, Aug. 7
9:45 a.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins on NASA+ and Amazon Prime.
10:20 a.m. – Hatch closing
11:45 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins on NASA+ and Amazon Prime.
12:05 p.m. – Undocking
Following the conclusion of undocking coverage, NASA will distribute audio-only discussions between Crew-10, the space station, and flight controllers during Dragon’s transit away from the orbital complex.
Friday, Aug. 8
10:45 a.m. – Return coverage begins on NASA+ and Amazon Prime.
11:08 a.m. – Deorbit burn
11:58 a.m. – Splashdown
1:30 p.m. – Return to Earth media teleconference will stream live on the agency’s YouTube channel, with the following participants:
Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Dina Contella, deputy manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX Kazuyoshi Kawasaki, associate director general, Space Exploration Center/Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center, JAXA To participate in the teleconference, media must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom by 5 p.m., Aug. 7, at: jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-5111. To ask questions, media must dial in no later than 10 minutes before the start of the call. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online.
Find full mission coverage, NASA’s commercial crew blog, and more information about the Crew-10 mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
Steve Siceloff / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 06, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Commercial Crew Humans in Space ISS Research Johnson Space Center Kennedy Space Center View the full article
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected six companies to produce studies focused on lower-cost ways to launch and deliver spacecraft of various sizes and forms to multiple, difficult-to-reach orbits.
The firm-fixed-price awards comprise nine studies with a maximum total value of approximately $1.4 million. The awardees are:
Arrow Science and Technology LLC, Webster, Texas Blue Origin LLC, Merritt Island, Florida Firefly Aerospace Inc., Cedar Park, Texas Impulse Space Inc., Redondo Beach, California Rocket Lab, Long Beach, California United Launch Services LLC, Centennial, Colorado “With the increasing maturity of commercial space delivery capabilities, we’re asking companies to demonstrate how they can meet NASA’s need for multi-spacecraft and multi-orbit delivery to difficult-to-reach orbits beyond current launch service offerings,” said Joe Dant, orbital transfer vehicle strategic initiative owner for the Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “This will increase unique science capability and lower the agency’s overall mission costs.”
Each of the six companies will deliver studies exploring future application of orbital transfer vehicles for NASA missions:
Arrow will partner with Quantum Space for its study. Quantum’s Ranger provides payload delivery service as a multi-mission spacecraft engineered for rapid maneuverability and adaptability, enabling multi-destination delivery for missions from low Earth orbit to lunar orbit.
Blue Origin will produce two studies, including one for Blue Ring, a large, high-mobility space platform providing full-service payload delivery, on-board edge computing, hosting, and end-to-end mission operations. It uses hybrid solar-electric and chemical propulsion capability to reach geostationary, cislunar, Mars, and interplanetary destinations. The second is a New Glenn upper stage study.
Firefly’s line of Elytra orbital vehicles offers on-demand payload delivery, imaging, long-haul communications, and domain awareness across cislunar space. Firefly’s Elytra Dark is equipped to serve as a transfer vehicle and enable ongoing operations in lunar orbit for more than five years.
Impulse Space will produce two studies. The company provides in-space mobility with two vehicles, Mira and Helios. Mira is a high-thrust, highly maneuverable spacecraft for payload hosting and deployment, while Helios is a high-energy kick stage to rapidly deliver payloads from low Earth to medium Earth orbits, geostationary orbits and beyond.
Rocket Lab’s two studies will feature the upper stage of the company’s Neutron rocket, as well as a long-life orbital transfer vehicle based on its Explorer spacecraft. Both vehicles are equipped with their own propulsion systems and other subsystems for missions to medium Earth and geosynchronous orbit and deep space destinations like the Moon, Mars, and near-Earth asteroids.
United Launch Alliance will assess the cislunar mission capabilities of an extended-duration Centaur V upper stage. Centaur would be capable of directly delivering multiple rideshare spacecraft to two different orbital destinations in cislunar space, avoiding the need for an additional rocket stage or orbital transfer vehicle.
The studies will be complete by mid-September. NASA will use the findings to inform mission design, planning, and commercial launch acquisition strategies for risk-tolerant payloads, with a possibility of expanding delivery services to larger-sized payloads and to less risk-tolerant missions in the future.
NASA’s Launch Services Program selected providers through the agency’s VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare Launch Services) contract, which helps foster growth of the U.S. commercial launch market, enabling greater access to space at a lower cost for science and technology missions.
For more information about NASA’s Launch Services Program, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/launch-services-program
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Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 05, 2025 LocationKennedy Space Center Related Terms
Partner With Us Commercial Space Kennedy Space Center Space Operations Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
4 Min Read Vision Changes on Space Station
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, assisted by JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, performs an eye ultrasound on the International Space Station. Credits: NASA Science in Space July 2025
When astronauts began spending six months and more aboard the International Space Station, they started to notice changes in their vision. For example, many found that, as their mission progressed, they needed stronger reading glasses. Researchers studying this phenomenon identified swelling in the optic disc, which is where the optic nerve enters the retina, and flattening of the eye shape. These symptoms became known as Space-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS).
NASA astronaut Suni Williams wears a cuff on her left leg as she conducts an eye exam for the Thigh Cuff investigation.NASA Microgravity causes a person’s blood and cerebrospinal fluid to shift toward the head and studies have suggested that these fluid shifts may be an underlying cause of SANS. A current investigation, Thigh Cuff, examines whether tight leg cuffs change the way fluid moves around inside the body, especially around the eyes and in the heart and blood vessels. If so, the cuffs could serve as a countermeasure against the problems associated with fluid shifts, including SANS. A simple and easy-to-use tool to counter the headward shift of body fluids could help protect astronauts on future missions to the Moon and Mars. The cuffs also could treat conditions on Earth that cause fluid to build up in the head or upper body, such as long-term bed rest and certain diseases.
Following fluid shifts
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough sets up optical coherence tomography hardware.NASA The Fluid Shifts investigation, conducted from 2015 through 2020, was the first to reveal changes in how blood drains from the brain in microgravity. Vision Impairment and Intracranial Pressure (VIIP) began testing the role those fluid shifts and resulting increased brain fluid pressure might play in the development of SANS. This research used a variety of measures including clinical eye exams with and without dilatation, imaging of the retina and associated blood vessels and nerves, noninvasive imaging to measure the thickness of retinal structures, and magnetic resonance imaging of the eye and optic nerve. In addition, approximately 300 astronauts completed questionnaires to document vision changes during their missions.
In one paper published from the research, scientists described how these imaging techniques have improved the understanding of SANS. The authors summarized emerging research on developing a head-mounted virtual reality display that can conduct multimodal, noninvasive assessment to help diagnose SANS.
Other researchers determined that measuring the optic nerve sheath diameter shows promise as a way to identify and quantify eye and vision changes during spaceflight. The paper also makes recommendations for standardizing imaging tools, measurement techniques, and other aspects of study design.
Another paper reported on an individual astronaut who had more severe than usual changes after a six-month spaceflight and certain factors that may have contributed. Researchers also observed improvement in the individual’s symptoms that may have been due to B vitamin supplementation and lower cabin carbon dioxide levels following departure of some crew members. While a single case does not allow researchers to determine cause and effect, the magnitude of the improvements suggest this individual may be more affected by environmental conditions such as carbon dioxide. This may have been the first attempt to mitigate SANS with inflight B vitamin supplementation.
Eyeball tissue stiffness
Optical coherence tomography image of the back of the eyeball (top) and thickness of the middle wall of the eye (bottom) from the SANSORI investigation.University of Montreal SANSORI, a CSA (Canadian Space Agency) investigation, used an imaging technique called Optical Coherence Tomography to examine whether reduced stiffness of eye tissue contributes to SANS. On Earth, changes in stiffness of the tissue around the eyeball have been associated with aging and conditions such as glaucoma and myopia. Researchers found that long-duration spaceflight affected the mechanical properties of eye tissues, which could contribute to the development of SANS. This finding could improve understanding of eye changes during spaceflight and in aging patients on Earth.
Genetic changes, artificial gravity
The MHU-8 investigation from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), which examined changes in DNA and gene expression in mice after spaceflight, found changes in the optic nerve and retinal tissue. Researchers also found that artificial gravity may reduce these changes and could serve as a countermeasure on future missions.
These and other studies ultimately could help researchers prevent, diagnose, and treat vision impairment in crew members and people on Earth.
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