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By NASA
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Nick Hague, and Don Pettit show off their ‘Proud to be American’ socks in a photo taken aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA Four NASA astronauts will participate in a welcome home ceremony at Space Center Houston after recently returning from missions aboard the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit will share highlights from their missions at 6 p.m. CDT Thursday, May 22, during a free, public event at NASA Johnson Space Center’s visitor center. The astronauts also will recognize key mission contributors during an awards ceremony after their presentation.
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, 2024, from Space Launch Complex 41 as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The duo arrived at the space station on June 6. In August, NASA announced the uncrewed return of Starliner to Earth and integrated Wilmore and Williams with the Expedition 71/72 crew and a return on Crew-9.
Hague launched Sept. 28, 2024, with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The next day, they docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore, and Williams returned to Earth on March 18, 2025, splashing down safely off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of America.
Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles during their mission, spent 286 days in space, and completed 4,576 orbits around Earth. Hague and Gorbunov traveled 72,553,920 miles during their mission, spent 171 days in space, and completed 2,736 orbits around Earth. Hague has logged 374 days in space during two missions. It was the third spaceflight for both Williams and Wilmore. Williams has logged 608 total days in space, and Wilmore has logged 464 days.
Pettit launched aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft on Sept. 11, 2024, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The seven-month research mission as an Expedition 72 flight engineer was the fourth spaceflight of Pettit’s career, completing 3,520 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 93.3 million miles. He has logged a total of 590 days in orbit. Pettit and his crewmembers safely landed in Kazakhstan on April 19, 2025 (April 20, 2025, Kazakhstan time).
The Expedition 72 crew dedicated more than 1,000 combined hours to scientific research and technology demonstrations aboard the International Space Station. Their work included enhancing metal 3D printing capabilities in orbit, exploring the potential of stem cell technology for treating diseases, preparing the first wooden satellite for deployment, and collecting samples from the station’s exterior to examine whether microorganisms can survive in the harsh environment of space. They also conducted studies on plant growth and quality, investigated how fire behaves in microgravity, and advanced life support systems, all aimed at improving the health, safety, and sustainability of future space missions. Pettit also used his spare time and surroundings aboard station to conduct unique experiments and captivate the public with his photography. Expedition 72 captured a record one million photos during the mission, showcasing the unique research and views aboard the orbiting laboratory through astronauts’ eyes.
For more than 24 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge, and conducting critical research for the benefit of humanity and our home planet. Space station research supports the future of human spaceflight as NASA looks toward deep space missions to the Moon under the Artemis campaign and in preparation for future human missions to Mars, as well as expanding commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit and beyond.
Learn more about the International Space Station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-
Jaden Jennings
Johnson Space Center, Houston
713-281-0984
jaden.r.jennings@nasa.gov
Dana Davis
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-244-0933
dana.l.davis@nasa.gov
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By NASA
4 min read
Unearthly Plumbing Required for Plant Watering in Space
NASA is demonstrating new microgravity fluids technologies to enable advanced “no-moving-parts” plant-watering methods aboard spacecraft.
Boeing Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore during operations of Plant Water Management-6 (PWM-6) aboard the International Space Station. Image: NASA Crop production in microgravity will be important to provide whole food nutrition, dietary variety, and psychological benefits to astronauts exploring deep space. Unfortunately, even the simplest terrestrial plant watering methods face significant challenges when applied aboard spacecraft due to rogue bubbles, ingested gases, ejected droplets, and myriad unstable liquid jets, rivulets, and interface configurations that arise in microgravity environments.
In the weightlessness of space, bubbles do not rise, and droplets do not fall, resulting in a plethora of unearthly fluid flow challenges. To tackle such complex dynamics, NASA initiated a series of Plant Water Management (PWM) experiments to test capillary hydroponics aboard the International Space Station in 2021. The series of experiments continue to this day, opening the door not only to supporting our astronauts in space with the possibility of fresh vegetables, but also to address a host of challenges in space, such as liquid fuel management, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and even urine collection.
The latest PWM hardware (PWM-5 and -6) involves three test units, each consisting of a variable-speed pump, tubing harness, assorted valves and syringes, and either one serial or two parallel hydroponic channels. This latest setup enables a wider range of parameters to be tested—e.g., gas and liquid flow rates, fill levels, inlet/outlet configurations, new bubble separation methods, serial and parallel flows, and new plant root types, numbers, and orders.
Most of the PWM equipment shipped to the space station consists of 3-D printed, flight-certified materials. The crew assembles the various system configurations on a workbench in the open cabin of the station and then executes the experiments, including routine communication with the PWM research team on the ground. All the quantitative data is collected via a single high-definition video camera.
The PWM hardware and procedures are designed to incrementally test the system’s capabilities for hydroponic and ebb and flow, and to repeatedly demonstrate priming, draining, serial/parallel channel operation, passive bubble management, limits of operation, stability during perturbations, start-up, shut-down, and myriad clean plant-insertion, saturation, stable flow, and plant-removal steps.
PWM-5 Hydroponic channel flow on the International Space Station with: (1) packed synthetic plant root model in passive bubble separating hydroponic channel, (2) passive aerator, (3) passive fluid reservoirs for water and nutrient solution balance, (4) passive bubble separator, (5) passive water trap, and (6) passive gas/bubble diverter. The flow is left to right across the channel and the aerated oxygenating bubbly flow is fully separated (no bubbles) by the bubble separator returning only liquid to the ‘root zone.’ The water trap, bubble diverter, root bundle and hydroponic channel dramatically increase the reliability of the plumbing by providing redundant passive bubble separating functions. Image courtesy of J. Moghbeli/NASA PWM-5 and -6 Root Models R1 – R4 from smallest to largest: perfectly wetting polymeric strands modelling Asian Mizuna. Image courtesy of IRPI LLC The recent results of the PWM-5 and -6 technology demonstrations aboard the space station have significantly advanced the technology used for passive plant watering in space. These quantitative demonstrations established hydroponic and ebb and flow watering processes as functions of serial and parallel channel fill levels, various types of engineered plant root models, and pump flow rates—including single-phase liquid flows and gas-liquid two-phase flows.
Critical PWM plumbing elements perform the role of passive gas-liquid separation (i.e., the elimination of bubbles from liquid and vice versa), which routinely occurs on Earth due to gravitational effects. The PWM-5 and -6 hardware in effect replaces the passive role of gravity with the passive roles of surface tension, wetting, and system geometry. In doing so, highly reliable “no-moving-parts” plumbing devices act to restore the illusive sense of up and down in space. For example,
hundreds of thousands of oxygenating bubbles generated by a passive aerator are 100% separated by the PWM bubble separator providing single-phase liquid flow to the hydroponic channel, 100% of the inadvertent liquid carry-over is captured in the passive water trap, and all of the bubbles reaching the bubble diverter are directed to the upper inlet of the hydroponic channel where they are driven ever-upward by the channel geometry, confined by the first plant root, and coalesce leaving the liquid flow as a third, redundant, 100% passive phase-separating mechanism. The demonstrated successes of PWM-5 and -6 offer a variety of ready plug-and-play solutions for effective plant watering in low- and variable-gravity environments, despite the challenging wetting properties of the water-based nutrient solutions used to water plants. Though a variety of root models are demonstrated by PWM-5 and -6, the remaining unknown is the role that real growing plants will play in such systems. Acquiring such knowledge may only be a matter of time.
100% Passive bubbly flow separations in microgravity demonstrated for PWM ‘devices’: a. bubble separator, b. bubble diverter, c. hydroponic channel and root model, and d. water trap. Liquid flows denoted by red arrows, air flows denoted by white arrows. Images courtesy of NASA Project Lead: Dr. Mark Weislogel, IRPI LLC
Sponsoring Organization: Biological and Physical Sciences Division
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Last Updated May 20, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
This article is for students grades 5-8.
The International Space Station is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live. The space station is also a unique science laboratory. Several nations worked together to build and use the space station. The space station is made of parts that were assembled in space by astronauts. It orbits Earth at an average altitude of approximately 250 miles. It travels at 17,500 mph. This means it orbits Earth every 90 minutes. NASA is using the space station to learn more about living and working in space. These lessons will make it possible to send humans farther into space than ever before.
How Old Is the Space Station?
The first piece of the International Space Station was launched in November 1998. A Russian rocket launched the Russian Zarya (zar EE uh) control module. About two weeks later, the space shuttle Endeavour met Zarya in orbit. The space shuttle was carrying the U.S. Unity node. The crew attached the Unity node to Zarya.
More pieces were added over the next two years before the station was ready for people to live there. The first crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000. People have lived on the space station ever since. More pieces have been added over time. NASA and its partners from around the world completed construction of the space station in 2011.
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Words to Know
Airlock: an air-tight chamber that can be pressurized and depressurized to allow access between spaces with different air pressure.
Microgravity: a condition, especially in space orbit, where the force of gravity is so weak that weightlessness occurs.
Module: an individual, self-contained segment of a spacecraft that is designed to perform a particular task.
Truss: a structural frame based on the strong structural shape of the triangle; functions as a beam to support and connect various components.
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How Big Is the Space Station?
The space station has the volume of a six-bedroom house with six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window. It is able to support a crew of seven people, plus visitors. On Earth, the space station would weigh almost one million pounds. Measured from the edges of its solar arrays, the station covers the area of a football field including the end zones. It includes laboratory modules from the United States, Russia, Japan, and Europe.
What Are the Parts of the Space Station?
In addition to the laboratories where astronauts conduct science research, the space station has many other parts. The first Russian modules included basic systems needed for the space station to function. They also provided living areas for crew members. Modules called “nodes” connect parts of the station to each other.
Stretching out to the sides of the space station are the solar arrays. These arrays collect energy from the sun to provide electrical power. The arrays are connected to the station with a long truss. On the truss are radiators that control the space station’s temperature.
Robotic arms are mounted outside the space station. The robot arms were used to help build the space station. Those arms also can move astronauts around when they go on spacewalks outside. Other arms operate science experiments.
Astronauts can go on spacewalks through airlocks that open to the outside. Docking ports allow other spacecraft to connect to the space station. New crews and visitors arrive through the ports. Astronauts fly to the space station on SpaceX Dragon and Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Robotic spacecraft use the docking ports to deliver supplies
Why Is the Space Station Important?
The space station has made it possible for people to have an ongoing presence in space. Human beings have been living in space every day since the first crew arrived. The space station’s laboratories allow crew members to do research that could not be done anywhere else. This scientific research benefits people on Earth. Space research is even used in everyday life. The results are products called “spinoffs.” Scientists also study what happens to the body when people live in microgravity for a long time. NASA and its partners have learned how to keep a spacecraft working well. All of these lessons will be important for future space exploration.
NASA currently is working on a plan to explore other worlds. The space station is one of the first steps. NASA will use lessons learned on the space station to prepare for human missions that reach farther into space than ever before.
Career Corner
Are you interested in a career that is related to living and working in space? Many different types of jobs make the space station a success. Here are a few examples:
Astronaut: These explorers come from a wide variety of backgrounds including military service, the medical field, science research, and engineering design. Astronauts must have skills in leadership, teamwork, and communications. They spend two years training before they are eligible to be assigned to spaceflight missions.
Microgravity Plant Scientist: These scientists study ways to grow plants in the microgravity environment of space. Growing plants on future space missions could provide food and oxygen. Plant scientists design experiments to be conducted by astronauts on the space station. These test new techniques for maximizing plant growth.
Fitness Trainer: Spending months on the space station takes a toll on astronauts’ bodies. Fitness trainers work with astronauts before, during, and after their space station missions to help keep them strong and healthy. This includes creating workout plans for while they’re living and working in space.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
One of the navigation cameras on NASA’s Perseverance captured the rover’s tracks coming from an area called “Witch Hazel Hill,” on May 13, 2025, the 1,503rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists expect the new area of interest on the lower slope of Jezero Crater’s rim to offer up some of the oldest rocks on the Red Planet.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is exploring a new region of interest the team is calling “Krokodillen” that may contain some of the oldest rocks on Mars. The area has been on the Perseverance science team’s wish list because it marks an important boundary between the oldest rocks of Jezero Crater’s rim and those of the plains beyond the crater.
“The last five months have been a geologic whirlwind,” said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from Caltech in Pasadena. “As successful as our exploration of “Witch Hazel Hill” has been, our investigation of Krokodillen promises to be just as compelling.”
Named by Perseverance mission scientists after a mountain ridge on the island of Prins Karls Forland, Norway, Krokodillen (which means “the crocodile” in Norwegian) is a 73-acre (about 30-hectare) plateau of rocky outcrops located downslope to the west and south of Witch Hazel Hill.
A quick earlier investigation into the region revealed the presence of clays in this ancient bedrock. Because clays require liquid water to form, they provide important clues about the environment and habitability of early Mars. The detection of clays elsewhere within the Krokodillen region would reinforce the idea that abundant liquid water was present sometime in the distant past, likely before Jezero Crater was formed by the impact of an asteroid. Clay minerals are also known on Earth for preserving organic compounds, the building blocks of life.
“If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with ‘Cheyava Falls,’” said Farley, referring to a rock sampled in July 2024 with chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by life long ago. “The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars’ earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars
Data collected from NASA’s Mars orbiters suggest that the outer edges of Krokodillen may also have areas rich in olivine and carbonate. While olivine forms from magma, carbonate minerals on Earth typically form during a reaction in liquid water between rock and dissolved carbon dioxide. Carbonate minerals on Earth are known to be excellent preservers of fossilized ancient microbial life and recorders of ancient climate.
The rover, which celebrated its 1,500th day of surface operations on May 9, is currently analyzing a rocky outcrop in Krokodillen called “Copper Cove” that may contain Noachian rocks.
Ranking Mars Rocks
The rover’s arrival at Krokodillen comes with a new sampling strategy for the nuclear-powered rover that allows for leaving some cored samples unsealed in case the mission finds a more scientifically compelling geologic feature down the road.
To date, Perseverance has collected and sealed two regolith (crushed rock and dust) samples, three witness tubes, and one atmospheric sample. It has also collected 26 rock cores and sealed 25 of them. The rover’s one unsealed sample is its most recent, a rock core taken on April 28 that the team named “Bell Island,” which contains small round stones called spherules. If at some point the science team decides a new sample should take its place, the rover could be commanded to remove the tube from its bin in storage and dump the previous sample.
“We have been exploring Mars for over four years, and every single filled sample tube we have on board has its own unique and compelling story to tell,” said Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “There are seven empty sample tubes remaining and a lot of open road in front of us, so we’re going to keep a few tubes — including the one containing the Bell Island core — unsealed for now. This strategy allows us maximum flexibility as we continue our collection of diverse and compelling rock samples.”
Before the mission adopted its new strategy, the engineering sample team assessed whether leaving a tube unsealed could diminish the quality of a sample. The answer was no.
“The environment inside the rover met very strict standards for cleanliness when the rover was built. The tube is also oriented in such a way within its individual storage bin that the likelihood of extraneous material entering the tube during future activities, including sampling and drives, is very low,” said Stack Morgan.
In addition, the team assessed whether remnants of a sample that was dumped could “contaminate” a later sample. “Although there is a chance that any material remaining in the tube from the previous sample could come in contact with the outside of a new sample,” said Stack Morgan, “it is a very minor concern — and a worthwhile exchange for the opportunity to collect the best and most compelling samples when we find them.”
News Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
2025-071
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Last Updated May 19, 2025 Related Terms
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