astronauts

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Astronauts' Extra Pay During Long ISS Stay: $5 Per Day

Wilmore, Williams received 'regular 40-hour workweek salaries,' NASA says

(Newser) - NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were in space for 278 days longer than planned but they weren't racking up overtime hours during their long stay on the International Space Station. They received their normal salary—$152,258 a year, according to NASA's 2024 pay rates—but...

Trump Takes Credit for Astronauts' Return

But the particulars are a little fuzzy on that

(Newser) - The safe return to Earth of two astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station has gotten political in a hurry. President Trump took to Truth Social to blame former President Biden for their stranding and to take credit for bringing them home.
  • "This began when I asked
...

Stranded Astronauts Are Back on Earth
'I See a Capsule Full
of Grins, Ear to Ear'
UPDATED
Mar 18, 2025 9:37 PM CDT

'I See a Capsule Full of Grins, Ear to Ear'

'Stranded' astronauts are back on Earth 278 days later than planned

(Newser) - NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have returned to Earth from a mission that was supposed to last around eight days when it began last June. A SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams, and two others returning from the International Space Station successfully splashed down off the coast of Florida...

Astronauts Finally Head Home: It's Been 'a Lot of Fun'

NASA's Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore are now hurtling back to Earth after 9 long months at ISS

(Newser) - One of the most "unusual and closely watched [chapters] in spaceflight history" is about to come to a close. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were originally only supposed to be at the International Space Station for a week when they set off into space on Boeing's Starliner last...

SpaceX Sends Crew to Replace NASA's Stranded Astronauts
Help Arrives for NASA's
Stranded Astronauts
UPDATED
Mar 16, 2025 6:29 AM CDT

Help Arrives for NASA's Stranded Astronauts

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams should finally be on their way home this week

(Newser) - A SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA's two stuck astronauts, per the AP . The four newcomers will spend the next few days learning the station's ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the latter two...

SpaceX Scrubs Launch of Flight to Replace Stuck Astronauts

Flight planned for Wednesday now won't be completed until Friday at the earliest

(Newser) - SpaceX on Wednesday night scrubbed the launch of a flight that was intended to replace the two astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for nine months. The Crew-10 flight was slated to take off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, but a problem with the launchpad'...

DC's New Feud Pits Elon Musk vs. Mark Kelly
DC's New Feud
Pits Elon Musk
vs. Mark Kelly
the rundown
Mar 11, 2025 12:03 PM CDT

DC's New Feud Pits Elon Musk vs. Mark Kelly

Face of DOGE called the senator and former astronaut a 'traitor' for trip to Ukraine

(Newser) - Elon Musk has picked a fight with Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and the former astronaut and ex-Navy pilot seems happy to oblige. Coverage:
  • The sniping began when Kelly posted a photo of his recent trip to Ukraine, writing that "what I saw proved to me we can'
...

Elon Musk's Astronaut Post Is a Little 'Perplexing'

He says SpaceX will bring pair home—which NASA announced in August

(Newser) - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk chided the Biden administration for leaving two astronauts "stranded" on the International Space Station in a Tuesday X post —and said President Trump had requested that SpaceX bring Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home as soon as possible. "We will do so,"...

Some Votes Came From Out of This World

NASA's didn't let little thing like being on a work trip 250 miles above Earth stop astronauts from voting

(Newser) - Work trips take Americans away from their polls on Election Day all the time, so we have absentee ballots. Work trips take astronauts a bit beyond the reach of standard absentee ballots, so NASA put together the Space Communication and Navigation Program. As Quartz reports, four astronauts aboard the International...

4 Astronauts Are Back on Earth After 8 Months

Return of ISS astronauts was delayed by Starliner problems, Hurricane Milton

(Newser) - Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing's capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton. A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week....

Asteroids Could Become Astronaut Food
Scientists to Future
Astronauts: Eat Rocks
NEW STUDY
Oct 18, 2024 10:41 AM CDT

Scientists to Future Astronauts: Eat Rocks

Organic compounds from asteroids could be fed to microbes, creating 'edible biomass'

(Newser) - Scientists are slowly tackling the roadblocks to human life in space, including how to breathe without oxygen , how to build without bricks , and how to find food where there is none. In terms of the latter, a team from Canada's Western University has come up with what they say...

Good News for Stranded Astronauts: Your Ride Is Here

SpaceX craft arrives at International Space Station, but won't return to Earth until February

(Newser) - The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday's arrival of a SpaceX capsule. SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will...

Europe Has the Next Best Thing to a New Moon

European Space Agency opens astronaut training facility with a faux lunar surface

(Newser) - Donning heavy spacesuits and visors to protect them from sunlight, astronauts Thomas Pesquet of France and Matthias Maurer of Germany, accompanied by their trusty canine robot, move slowly on what looks like the lunar surface. But it's not the moon. It will be years before the European Space Agency...

'Earth Sure Looks Like a Perfect World'

SpaceX crew members make history with private spacewalk

(Newser) - "Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world," billionaire Jared Isaacman said Thursday morning after emerging from the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in the first-ever spacewalk by a private citizen. The tech entrepreneur was...

Starliner Is Back on Earth, Sans Crew

Boeing capsule lands in New Mexico, leaving astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore at ISS

(Newser) - Boeing's first astronaut mission ended Friday night with an empty capsule landing and two test pilots still in space, left behind until next year because NASA judged their return too risky. Six hours after departing the International Space Station, Starliner parachuted into New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range,...

Astronaut Reports 'Strange Noise' From Starliner

NASA has solved the mystery of odd pulsing sound coming from Boeing Starliner docked at ISS

(Newser) - NASA's Butch Wilmore had Mission Control scratching its head this weekend with a question about an odd noise. "I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore said in his Saturday message to Houston from the Boeing aircraft docked at the International Space Station, per the Guardian . "...

Their 8-Day Space Mission Is Now in Its 51st Day

NASA still doesn't have a return date for 2 astronauts who went to ISS on Starliner

(Newser) - NASA says astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore aren't stranded in space, they're just not sure when they can bring them home. The astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on June 6 in Boeing's much-delayed Starliner spacecraft, and what was supposed to be an eight-day visit...

Stranded Astronauts Keep Faith
Stranded Astronauts Keep Faith
Jul 10, 2024 4:35 PM CDT

Stranded Astronauts Keep Faith

NASA test pilots hold news conference in orbit

(Newser) - Two astronauts who should have been back on Earth weeks ago said Wednesday that they're confident that Boeing's space capsule can return them safely, despite breakdowns. NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing's new Starliner capsule early last month, the first people to...

NTSB: Ex-Astronaut Did a Flyby Just Before Fatal Crash

William Anders routinely did such flybys in the San Juan Islands, a friend tells government agency

(Newser) - A preliminary report in the investigation into the plane crash last month that killed William Anders, the 90-year-old former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo from space, has determined that Anders was doing a flyby past a friend's home right before his aircraft plummeted into...

Women Seem Less Affected by Stresses of Space
Space Travel Hits Men
Harder Than Women
NEW STUDY
Jun 11, 2024 3:51 PM CDT

Space Travel Hits Men Harder Than Women

Women also recovered faster after returning to Earth, researchers say

(Newser) - Women appear to be better suited to spaceflight than men, researchers say. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications , researchers say women were better able to withstand the stress spaceflight puts on the body, including the disruption of gene activity, the Guardian reports. They also recovered faster than...

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