NASA

WASHINGTON — NASA plans to return four astronauts from the International Space Station to Earth early Jan. 15, about a week after one of the crew members experienced a medical issue that prompted the shortened mission. In a statement late Jan. 9, NASA said the Crew-11 astronauts will undock from the International Space Station at about 5 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 14. Splashdown, at a location to be determined off the California coast, is scheduled for about 3:40 a.m. Eastern on Jan. 15. The timeline was announced a little more than 24 hours after NASA said it would bring Crew-11 home more than a month early following a “medical condition” affecting one of the astronauts on Jan. 7. NASA has not identified the astronaut or disclosed details of the condition. The decision marks the first...

In October 2025, Space Center Houston and the Cactus Jack Foundation partnered to launch the Space Design Program. This eight-week-long initiative invited HISD students to turn everyday space problems into protypes—driving solutions to shape the future of space exploration. After weeks of intensive research, development and design, we invited the four HISD student teams to share their innovations at the Space Design Showcase, with community leaders, educators and the Cactus Jack Foundation team. From building portable healthcare devices to creating tools to enhance lunar exploration. Here’s a closer look inside the innovations from the Space Design Showcase: Astronaut Vital-Monitoring HelmetAstronaut safety on the Moon requires real-time...

A sideways spiral galaxy shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. Located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden), NGC 4388 is a resident of the Virgo galaxy cluster. This enormous cluster of galaxies contains more than a thousand members and is the nearest large galaxy cluster to the Milky Way. NGC 4388 appears to tilt at an extreme angle relative to our point of view, giving us a nearly edge-on prospect of the galaxy. This perspective reveals a curious feature that wasn’t visible in a previous Hubble image of this galaxy released in 2016: a plume of gas from the galaxy’s nucleus, here seen billowing out from the galaxy’s disk toward the lower-right corner of the image. But where did this outflow come from, and why does it glow? The answer l...

If we could see our galaxy, the Milky Way, from the outside, it would look like an enormous, bedazzled pinwheel. Vast sprays of stars form spiral arms that curl outward from a bright center that bulges like the yolk in a fried egg. Dark, dusty tendrils darken some regions, while glowing pink gas clouds light up others.ALTWe have a pretty good idea of the Milky Way’s overall structure, but since we’re nestled inside it, fine details are hard to see. Those clouds of gas and dust strewn throughout interstellar space block our view, especially of the far side of the galaxy.  Astronomers have used observations from different telescopes to piece together our galaxy’s anatomy. Let’s scrub up and dive in!ALTAn artist’s concept of our Milky Way galaxy’s central bulge.At the heart of our galaxy, an ...

WASHINGTON — A French launch startup that recently closed a funding round is seeking defense applications for its hybrid propulsion technology. HyPrSpace announced last month it closed a 21 million euro ($24.7 million) Series A funding round. The round, which the company said was oversubscribed, was led by venture capital firm Red River West and the DeepTech 2030 fund managed by the French public-sector investment bank Bpifrance on behalf of the French government. HyPrSpace is developing a small launch vehicle called Orbital Baguette 1, or OB-1, capable of placing up to 235 kilograms into orbit. The company is also working on a suborbital vehicle, Baguette One, intended as a technology demonstrator for OB-1. The Series A funding will allow HyPrSpace to complete development of Ba...