From long-awaited rocket launches to an unprecedented asteroid encounter, the past 12 months in spaceflight have been a doozy. The events of 2022 will be shaping space exploration and commercialization for years to come.
These striking images will let you relive the biggest moments of the year, like the Artemis 1 lunar mission, the DART asteroid deflection test, and the out-of-control Chinese rockets (yes, plural). Good, bad, or ugly, these developments produced a wealth of memorable imagery.
It might be time for NASA to ditch its aging ISS spacesuits. The space agency announced a pause to all its spacewalks until it has a better handle on a lingering and frightening issue that’s causing water to leak inside of astronauts’ helmets.
The latest incident happened during an extravehicular activity (EVA) in March, but this isn’t the first time a helmet has filled up with water during a spacewalk—a potentially life-threatening scenario for astronauts. NASA has raised concerns that the aging spacesuits on board the ISS might not be usable anymore and that it may be time to swap them out for a newer model currently in development. The spacesuits that NASA uses now are more than 40 years old, and the agency seems to be running out of fully functional space suits; only 18 usable units are available on the ISS, according to a 2017 report.
The most recent water leak took place on March 23, when NASA astronaut Raja Chari and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer were installing hoses on a radiator beam valve module outside the space station. By the end of the seven-hour spacewalk, Maurer—who was venturing out on his first spacewalk—noticed some water and dampness inside his visor. The astronaut took photos for the ground control team to analyze, but the space agency said the issue posed no threat to Maurer’s life.
During a meeting of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel last week, Susan Helms, a former NASA astronaut who serves on the panel, said that spacewalks are on pause for the space agency in light of the ongoing investigation into the water leak. “Because NASA is thinking through the risk posture for these suits, which are aging, the [spacesuit] is currently no-go for planned EVAs pending an investigation into what they discover,” she said.
Dana Weigel, deputy manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, later confirmed that the agency was holding off on spacewalks during a Tuesday briefing on the upcoming Boeing CST-100 flight test. “We won’t do a planned EVA until we’ve had a chance to really address and rule out major system failure modes,” Weigel said.
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The suits can only be properly examined by engineers on Earth, so the agency is planning on sending them back during the upcoming SpaceX cargo Dragon mission in early June. Until then, NASA will consider the risk of conducting a spacewalk as opposed to the risk of ignoring a potential repair that might need to be done on the space station exterior. “We’ll have to look at risk versus risk,” Weigel said during the briefing.
The latest incident is one of a series of horrifying accounts of astronauts discovering water leaks in their suits while floating in space. Back in 2013, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano noticed a water leak inside his helmet that forced an early wrap-up to the spacewalk. Parmitano was able to re-enter the ISS airlock but was having difficulty breathing as 1.5 liters of water had formed inside his helmet.
“I feel it covering the sponge on my earphones and I wonder whether I’ll lose audio contact. The water has also almost completely covered the front of my visor, sticking to it and obscuring my vision,” Parmitano recounted in a chilling blog post later. “At that moment, as I turn ‘upside-down’, two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see—already compromised by the water—completely vanishes, making my eyes useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose.”
That same spacesuit was used for a spacewalk two years later, and nearly drowned another astronaut in space. NASA astronaut Terry Virts donned spacesuit #3005, and after completing the spacewalk he noticed free-floating droplets of water and a damp absorption pad in his helmet.
NASA unveiled shiny new spacesuits back in 2019 for astronauts to wear outside the ISS and for the agency’s upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, but funding shortages have delayed the suits’ deployment. The lifetime of the current spacesuits was accordingly extended to 2028. Given the situation with the water leaks, it’s not clear how NASA will handle future spacewalks.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon safely delivered four private astronauts—not affiliated with any space agency—to the International Space Station this past Saturday. With the Axiom crew now onboard, the first all-private mission to the ISS can get down to business.
SpaceX capsule Endeavor reached the ISS at 8:20 a.m. EDT on Saturday, April 9, following a nearly 21-hour journey. The crew of the Ax-1 mission—Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy—launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The ISS is currently orbiting at a height of 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.
The docking would’ve happened 45 minutes earlier, had it not been for a problem having to do with ISS crew members not being able to receive video from the Crew Dragon’s center line camera. Ground controllers remedied the problem by routing video from a SpaceX ground station, according to NASA.
The four crew members will stay on the orbital outpost for eight days, where they will perform some 25 experiments having to do with science, education, and commercial activities. Axiom Space is aiming to build the world’s first fully commercial space station, the construction of which is slated to begin at the ISS in late 2024. The Ax-1 mission represents an important milestone in the ongoing commercialization of low Earth orbit.
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The opening of the Crew Dragon hatch happened at 10:13 a.m. EDT, whereupon the Expedition 67 crew welcomed the Ax-1 team. The addition of these four men brings the total ISS population to 11, the others being NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Korsokov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev. Three members of the Ax-1 crew received a pin from the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) to formally recognize their new status as astronauts.
“There’s a tradition when you pass a certain boundary, you become an astronaut. That happened to these three gentlemen for the first time yesterday. Now I’d like to note it officially,” López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut, said during Saturday’s welcome ceremony. “When I pin these on—I think the numbers are 582, 583, and 584 for Larry, Eytan, and Mark—I hope they will wear these with the pride they deserve,” he said, in reference to the total number of formally recognized astronauts to date.
The Ax-1 team is now adjusting to microgravity and familiarizing themselves with the space station. On Sunday, López-Alegría tweeted out a stunning image of Earth, saying: “La vida es corta; vívala a tope!,” which translates from Spanish to English as “Life is short; live it to the fullest!”
Axiom said the first day was mostly about preparing equipment for what will be a very busy week. The team has just 100 hours to complete their respective tasks. You can learn more about the Ax-1 mission and what the team is trying to achieve here.
All seven astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station are having to take shelter inside their respective spacecraft owing to the sudden appearance of a debris cloud in orbit, the source of which remains unclear.
Information is slowly trickling in, but we do know that the ISS is currently functioning normally and that all seven crew members are healthy and safe. The crew had to take shelter earlier this morning due to the sudden appearance of an orbiting debris field. The unexplained breakup of the defunct Russian satellite Kosmos-1408 is currently the leading candidate for the source of the orbiting debris cloud.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer are sheltering inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon docked to the ISS, while Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei are inside a Soyuz capsule, reports Russian state-owned news agency TASS. The astronauts could use these spacecraft to safely return to Earth in the event the ISS is damaged by the debris.
A live feed of NASA mission control is available, allowing you to follow the events as they’re happening.
In a tweet, Roscosmos said the crew is “routinely performing operations according to the flight program,” and that the threatening “object” has “moved away from the ISS orbit.” By “object,” the Russian space agency is referring to the debris field. The “station is in the green zone,” Roscosmos added.
“Friends, everything is regular with us!,” tweeted Shkaplerov. “We continue to work on the program.”
Despite these words of reassurance, operations aboard the ISS are most certainly not back to normal. Mission controllers are continually providing countdowns of each debris field transit (i.e. the closest approach of the debris field to the ISS). At 10:32 a.m. ET, controllers provided instructions for the NASA crew to temporarily enter into the Columbus module to perform some quick tasks and to collect personal items should they have to remain inside Dragon overnight (a possible indication that this could take a while).
The debris field transits were happening about once every 93 minutes at first, but now they’re happening about once every 30 to 40 minutes. In an email, Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said that, assuming it’s a debris field caused by a broken-up satellite, “there will be a big error bar on whether there is risk to ISS, hence the caution.”
The source of the debris field remains unconfirmed, but its sudden appearance coincides with reports that Russia has conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test. In a tweet, Gunter Krebs, a physicist and editor of Gunter’s Space Page, said the target was an “old Soviet Tselina-D SIGINT satellite called Kosmos-1408 (1982-092A) launched in 1982, which has been dead for decades,” and that ”14 debris objects have been tracked.” But Krebs cautions: “So far no confirmation from official sources.”
U.S. Space Force “is aware of a debris-generating event in outer space” and is “working to characterize the debris field and will continue to ensure all space-faring nations have the information necessary to maneuver satellites if impacted,” tweeted space reporter Joey Roulette from the New York Times.
Today’s incident comes less than a week after the ISS had to make an emergency maneuver to evade potentially threatening space junk. In that case, it was a remnant of the Fengyun-1C weather satellite, which China deliberately destroyed in 2007 as part of an anti-satellite missile test. India did something similar in 2019, joining the United States, Russia, and China as countries that have tested anti-satellite weapons. Currently, the use of ASATs “occupy a gray zone” when it comes to international arms control, writes Talia M. Blatt from Harvard University.
This is a developing story and we will update this article as we learn more.
The International Space Station could be emptier than usual next week, should NASA decide to send four astronauts home prior to the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission.
I hope astronauts are a patient bunch, because it’s taking a while for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to get off the ground. Launch of the brand new Endurance Crew Dragon capsule was supposed to happen on October 31, but ongoing weather problems and a minor medical issue involving a crewmember has resulted in a series of delays. Meanwhile, back at the orbital ranch known as the International Space Station, the Crew-2 team is preparing to return home. The lingering question right now is, will Crew-3 launch before or after Crew-2 says au revoir to the ISS?
“These are dynamic and complex decisions that change day by day,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. “The weather in November can be especially challenging, so our goal is to move forward on the plan with the highest probability of mission assurance and crew safety.”
Allow me to present to you the situation as it exists right now.
Crew-2, consisting of NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, could leave the ISS as early at 1:05 p.m. EDT on Sunday, November 7. They could also leave the next day, should the situation warrant. Departure of Crew-2 is dependent on several factors, including the readiness of the Crew Dragon capsule and recovery teams, along with favorable weather and ocean conditions (parachute-assisted splashdown is expected off the Florida coast).
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Should Crew-2 leave before Crew-3 arrives, that would leave just three Expedition 66 crew members aboard the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei. If Crew-2 can’t leave the ISS on either Sunday or Monday (for whatever reason), that would set the stage for the launch of Crew-3 on Monday, November 8, at 9:51 p.m. EDT.
A launch window for Crew-3 exists for November 6 and 7, but NASA and SpaceX have chosen to forgo these dates on account of expected poor weather. Specific concerns have to do with high winds at the launch pad, the presence of cumulus clouds, risk of lightning, and unfavorable conditions down range should an in-flight abort be necessary.
Frustratingly, weather predictions for November 8 also do not look good. At the same time, NASA is still monitoring that minor (and undisclosed) medical issue involving one of the Crew-3 astronauts. The Crew-3 team consists of NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer.
“Mission teams will make a final decision on whether to prioritize Crew-3’s launch or Crew-2’s return in the coming days based on the likelihood of favorable conditions for a Crew Dragon splashdown or Crew Dragon launch,” NASA says. “NASA and SpaceX also are reviewing the time needed between launch or return operations.
Crew-2 launched on April 23 and arrived at the ISS the following day. Their Crew Dragon, Endeavour, has been in space for 195 days. That’s significant, because NASA has a requirement stating that the SpaceX capsule must be capable of staying in orbit for 210 days. “Additional analysis could allow the spacecraft to remain in orbit for longer, if necessary,” according to NASA.
Eventually—we think—the Crew-3 mission will launch. Once in space, the crew can sit back and relax, and even use the toilets with reckless abandon. For you see, Endurance has been fitted with upgraded toilets, which means the crew doesn’t have to worry about spilling their urine all over the place. The same cannot be said for the Crew-2 astronauts, as Endeavor’s toilet is still in the old configuration. Thankfully that shouldn’t pose a problem given the quick journey home.
An upcoming launch to deliver four astronauts to the International Space Station is ready for 3, 2, 1, blast off—oh, aside from NASA still having to approve a last-minute adjustment made to SpaceX’s leaky toilet.
Launch of the new Crew Dragon capsule, named Endurance, is scheduled for October 31 at 2:21 a.m. EDT (6:21 UTC). This operational mission, the third for SpaceX under a commercial crew arrangement with NASA, seeks to deliver NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, along with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, to the ISS. SpaceX has already received the “go” for launch of the Crew-3 mission, but NASA still needs to close out an unresolved item having to do with recent fixes made to the Crew Dragon toilet.
That the toilet was not working properly became apparent during the recently concluded Inspiration4 mission, in which SpaceX sent an all-private crew to orbit. Exact details were not given, but the Elon Musk-led company admitted that upgrades to the system would be necessary.
At a news conference held Monday, Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, finally provided more info, saying a tube in the tank became loose, which “allowed urine to not go into the storage tank but, essentially, to go into the fan system,” he said, adding that the urine also crept its way beneath the floor.
Fearing a design issue, SpaceX also looked at Endeavour’s toilet, and sure enough, a similar problem was detected, Gerstenmaier said. Endeavour, the Crew Dragon spacecraft used for the Crew-2 mission, arrived at the ISS on April 24, where it has been docked ever since. The leaky toilet wasn’t noticed because Endeavour took just one day to reach the ISS, whereas Resilience, the spacecraft used during the Inspiration4 mission, spent three days in orbit.
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Tests are currently underway to confirm that no components inside of Endeavour were damaged by spilled urine during the past six months. Final tests, said Gerstenmaier, should be completed by the end of this week. The detection of structural damage could impact the return of the capsule, which is scheduled to bring astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet back to Earth no earlier than November 4.
As for Endurance and the upcoming Crew-3 mission, “we’ve fixed this problem in the tank by essentially making an all-welded structure with no longer joints in there that can come unglued and become disconnected,” Gerstenmaier explained. This fix still needs to be approved by NASA, which seems likely given that the space agency has already granted SpaceX the go to launch this Sunday.
At the Monday briefing, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said his team has “a little bit of work to do with SpaceX leading forward to flight.” Specialists are looking for “tiny clues or tiny, tiny imperfections, that somebody might look at a plot and wonder: why did that temperature go up here, or this pressure change here,” he said. “So you really just try to dig into all those sorts of things and try to understand those, and then improve things and fly safely.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Chari said he has “complete confidence” in the fix, saying SpaceX quickly attended to its busted toilet—with “hundreds” of its people looking into the matter, as AP reports.
As noted, this is just the third operational mission for SpaceX and just its fifth passenger flight overall. These types of minor growing pains are to be expected as NASA’s Commercial Crew program gets rolling in earnest. Boeing, by contrast, has yet to perform a crewed flight of its Starliner spacecraft—a flight that may not happen until 2023.
More: Microbes might make it easier to produce rocket fuel on Mars.
On Wednesday morning, Russia will attempt to launch a Proton-M rocket to the International Space Station. The purpose of the mission is to deliver Russia’s new “Nauka” module to the ISS, along with a sleek new robotic arm built by a European consortium. You can watch the action live right here.
The Proton-M carrier rocket is scheduled to launch at 10:58 a.m. EDT (7:58 a.m. PDT) on Wednesday, July 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Packed atop the rocket is a new ISS module formally known as the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory, but friends know it as Nauka. The European Robotic Arm (ERA), built for the European Space Agency, is coming along for the ride. NASA’s coverage of the launch begins at 10:30 a.m. EDT (7:30 a.m. PDT).
The cargo won’t arrive at the ISS until July 29, at which point the module will dock to the nadir docking point of the Zvezda service module, according to Roscosmos. This port is currently occupied by the Pirs docking compartment, which has been in service for 20 years. Pirs will detach from the ISS on Friday July 23 and then burn up on reentry through Earth’s atmosphere (this procedure is contingent on a successful launch of the Nauka module). As NASA Spaceflight reports, Pirs will be the first ISS module “to be decommissioned and removed from the outpost.”
Roscomos says Nauka is “meant to expand the functionality of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.” The new segment will provide more room for running experiments and storing cargo and equipment (including water and oxygen regeneration equipment) and will “improve the conditions of cosmonauts’ stay.”
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Once deployed and working, ERA will be the first robotic joint to service Russian segments of the ISS. The 37-foot-long arm has autonomous capabilities, and it will be capable of “walking” along the exterior of the ISS. Moving like an inchworm, the arm will latch its end-points to anchors located on the surface of the orbital outpost.
ESA astronauts Thomas Pesquet, Matthias Maurer, and Samantha Cristoforetti will support the installation of the arm, both from inside and outside the ISS. Installation of the arm will require five spacewalks, according to ESA. The first tasks for the new arm will be to set up an airlock and radiator for the Nauka module.
More: Rebooted Hubble telescope wastes no time, captures cool new pics of misfit galaxies.