Category: Human Spaceflight

If you have ever shared a room with multiple people for days on end, you may know how clothes and living conditions can rapidly turn rather smelly. Imagine that happening in a confined spacecraft.

Even worse, since water on a space mission is in short supply, space travelers can't easily do their laundry. This is more than a body odor problem — unclean clothes and linens are ripe feeding grounds for infectious bacteria. Astronauts might wear the same clothes for days or even weeks, seal away used clothes in airtight bags, then return them to Earth for cleaning or cast them away to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

This is fine for short trips near Earth, but what about a months-long odyssey to Mars? Engineers have devised a new way for astronauts to dry-clean their dirty laundry. They've crafted a prototype "laundry gun" that sterilizes fabric by shooting violet-colored plasma into it.

"This will reduce the microbial load and keep clothes and other soft surfaces clean, at least microbially, for astronaut health," says Gabe Xu, a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and one of the laundry gun's creators, in a statement. "It could also be used to sterilize space suits and tools before they leave the habitat and step foot on Mars."

A plasma is an energized soup of charged particles, ions and electrons. While many plasmas like that in the sun are very hot, the laundry gun's plasma is "cold," closer to room temperature.

Its electrons are key to killing bacteria. As the laundry gun shoots plasma into fabric, the electrons collide with gas molecules in the surrounding air, such as oxygen (O2) and water vapor (H2O). These collisions create other molecules like ozone (O3), which chemists call "oxidizing species". These oxidizing species can chemically react with the membrane that surrounds a bacterium, damaging and destroying it.

In collaboration with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Xu and colleagues have created a prototype plasma gun, about the size of a pen, which can sanitize about a square centimeter at a time. In their tests, the prototype reduced spore colonies on a scrap of fabric by more than 75%.

Earthly disinfectants like peroxide and bleach also attack bacteria by oxidizing them in this way. The laundry gun's creators could allow astronauts to travel without such cleaning chemicals. Instead, the apparatus creates its cleaning plasma from the spacecraft’s own air and water vapor. In space travel, where every gram of mass matters, this is a major advantage.

"The use of plasma treatment could significantly reduce the mass of goods needed for a human mission, especially one to Mars where resupply is difficult," Xu wrote in the statement.

That said, the "laundry gun" is not a perfect replacement for the standard washing machine — not yet, at any rate. "This won't remove coffee or grass stains (though we haven't tried that)," Xu wrote in the statement.

Moreover, a pen-sized laundry gun is too small to be practical. Xu and colleagues are planning to build larger, but still handheld, devices. They'll also need to deal with their plasma gun's ozone, which can be harmful in large quantities — they're working on a filtration system to remove this.

Space laundry is a rather active area of research today — astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) recently tested a space detergent, and the Chinese space program has developed a washing machine suitable for low-water use.

Astronauts have long struggled with constipation in space. Now, scientists may finally understand why.

A new study of 52 astronauts who lived aboard the International Space Station (ISS) suggests that microgravity may slow the movement of food through the intestines, changing how gut bacteria break down nutrients. The findings could ultimately help researchers develop dietary strategies to keep astronauts' digestive systems running smoothly during future missions to the moon and Mars — while offering new clues about digestive problems here on Earth, according to a statement from the University of Copenhagen.

Constipation is a common problem among astronauts, but exactly what happens inside the gut during spaceflight has remained less clear. To investigate, researchers from the University of Copenhagen and NASA analyzed blood samples collected from astronauts before, during and after missions aboard the space station.

"We see changes in astronauts' blood samples that indicate that the gut bacteria begin to ferment protein to a greater extent than usual within weeks after the astronauts arrive in space, and this change continues until they are back on Earth," Giorgia La Barbera, co-lead author of the study and associate professor at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, said in the statement.

The team used a technique called metabolomics to measure small molecules circulating in the blood, providing a biochemical snapshot of how the astronauts' bodies — and the microbes living inside them — were responding to spaceflight.

In total, the researchers analyzed 488 plasma samples from 52 astronauts who spent between two and nine months aboard the orbiting lab between 2006 and 2018. They identified changes in around 40 circulating compounds during spaceflight, including several metabolites produced when bacteria in the colon ferment proteins. Those compounds increased while the astronauts were in space, suggesting food was spending more time moving through their intestines, according to the statement.

Normally, bacteria in the colon ferment fiber and carbohydrates for energy. But when digestion slows, those carbohydrates can become depleted, causing microbes to break down more proteins instead and produce different metabolites that can enter the bloodstream. The changes appeared shortly after astronauts entered space and largely subsided within days of their return to Earth, providing biochemical evidence that digestion slows in space. Differences in diet, including caffeine, fish and fat intake, accounted for less than one-third of the metabolic changes, suggesting diet alone couldn't explain the effect.

"The lack of gravity in space probably causes food to move more slowly through the intestine, and this fits with the fact that we are seeing signs of increased protein fermentation," Henrik Roager, co-author of the study and also an associate professor at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, said in the statement. "This may also help explain constipation in astronauts."

However, while the researchers did not directly measure how quickly food moved through the astronauts' digestive systems, the metabolic changes they observed suggest that it moved more slowly through the gut.

The findings could become increasingly important as astronauts spend months — or eventually years — away from Earth. Beyond the discomfort of constipation, increased protein fermentation can produce compounds such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and the researchers say some of the metabolites associated with this process have been linked to other negative health effects.

One potential countermeasure may be relatively simple: more fiber. The team suggests increasing astronauts' intake of slowly fermented carbohydrates, which could give gut microbes more carbohydrates to consume and reduce their reliance on protein fermentation.

Understanding how microgravity affects digestion and gut bacteria could help keep astronauts healthy on increasingly long missions to the moon and Mars, while also offering new clues for treating digestive problems on Earth by revealing how slower movement through the gut changes microbial activity.

Similar studies of astronaut health in microgravity have also yielded insights for people back on Earth. Bone loss is one prominent example. Astronauts lose bone density much faster in microgravity than people typically do on Earth, and efforts to prevent that loss have helped scientists better understand osteoporosis and age-related bone loss. Spaceflight research has also offered insights into muscle loss, cardiovascular health and immune-system changes associated with aging and disease.

Their findings were published June 29 in the journal Nature Communications.

On Aug. 16, 1963, NASA's M2-F1 aircraft prototype made its first glide flight.

This wingless aircraft kind of looked like a flying bathtub. NASA made it to test a new concept called the lifting body, which was an unpowered glider that provided an alternative way to return piloted spacecraft to Earth. Instead of pummeling out of the sky in a ballistic reentry, the lifting body landed sort of like an airplane.

For its first test flight, the M2-F1 was towed 5,200 feet into the air by a C-47 Skytrain and then released. Test pilot Milt Thompson was in the cockpit, and he brought the glider in for a smooth landing in California after a two-minute descent.

Why it mattered

The success of M2-F1's first glide flight proved a wingless lifting-body aircraft could be controlled and landed safely. The introduction of a second potential method of returning astronauts from space was a crucial consideration during a time when NASA was racing against the Soviet Union for access to space and, ultimately, the moon.

Though NASA opted for the familiar capsule and heat shield design used during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, the M2-F1 and its subsequent test flights paved the way for NASA's continued research into lifting-bodies, and led to the development of an entire family of lifting-body test vehicles like the M2-F2, M2-F3, HL-10, and the U.S. Air Force's X-24A and X-24B, which executed lifting-body flights at much higher speeds and altitudes.

Eventually, data from these programs was applied to the development of the space shuttle, and the real-life practice of landing a spacecraft back on Earth the same way you would an airplane.

Cards Against Humanity isn't done with its scorched-Earth campaign against SpaceX and Elon Musk.

The Chicago-based company behind the popular fill-in-the-blank adult card game is inviting the public to join its design committee to erect an "Elon Musk is a Sad Little B----- with No Friends" monument on a stretch of land it owns near SpaceX's Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas.

Cards Against Humanity (CAH) brought a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024 for illegally dumping construction materials and other equipment on land owned by CAH. SpaceX decided to settle with the company in 2025 and removed its "gravel, tractors, and space garbage" from the property prior to the area's annexation for the city of Starbase's incorporation, according to CAH. But the company, and its apparent distaste for "racist billionaires," as it has labeled Musk, as well as President Trump, is still pushing back.

Trump's role in the ordeal informs why CAH owns the Texas property in the first place. The company launched the "Cards Against Humanity Saves America" campaign during Trump's first term in 2017, which included an effort to throw a roadblock in the U.S. government's ability to complete construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The campaign attracted 150,000 contributors who paid $15 each, enabling CAH to purchase the land and retain the services of an eminent domain law firm "to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall."

SpaceX had already purchased much of the surrounding land by then and officially broke ground at what would become Starbase in 2014. Starbase is the center of development and operations for SpaceX's Starship rocket — a fully reusable launch vehicle that will clock in as the world's largest, most powerful rocket in history once it's operational.

Major construction at Starbase began in earnest in 2018, with the first Starship prototype vehicle tests beginning in 2019. When CAH filed its lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024, SpaceX had already managed to launch four full-stack Starship test flights and begun construction of a second Starbase launch pad. That's around when the facility's general expansion began to encroach on CAH's property, according to a complaint the company filed in Texas' Cameron County 404th District Court.

Starbase's location at the very southern tip of Texas provides a safe and remote area for testing giant rockets. But SpaceX's increased activity there has triggered a large influx of employees in search of housing in and around the unincorporated Boca Chica area, which had been sparsely populated. SpaceX eventually began constructing clusters of homes for its employees around its facilities, and, in an effort to obtain some control over local governance for things like zoning and permitting, workers and residents voted to incorporate Starbase as its own city in May 2025.

That CAH's plot of land was annexed as part of Starbase's official incorporation has apparently not sat well with the people behind the popular card game, and they are once again engaging the public to try to get Musk's attention. In a Threads post on Aug. 13, the company asked, "Who wants to f---- with Elon Musk?"

"Now, our parcel has been annexed into a 'town' called 'Starbase' — a corporate hellscape littered with broken rockets and ugly mansions for Musk's executives," the post says. In typically colorful CAH fashion, it adds, "But hope is not lost! We still have our rights as proud Texas landowners: We can build something on our land. Something that will annoy Elon Musk. A grand monument to make him wonder, for a brief moment, 'Wait, am I a sad little b---- with no friends?'"

The announcement calls for the formation of a design committee for the aforementioned monument, which CAH describes as "a movement of like-minded people working together … to force a moment of introspection" for Musk, available for anyone to join for $10 at "ElonHasNoFriends.com". The post also advertises that 10% of profits from sales of its new game expansion decks will go toward funding the monument as well.

CAH isn't alone in criticizing Musk and SpaceX's Starbase activities. Musk's public persona has grown exponentially with SpaceX's successes over the past decade or so and his 2022 purchase of the social media platform Twitter, which he renamed X. Musk has also drawn criticism for his comments and actions during the 2024 election, which he may have helped swing via the donation of nearly $300 million to Trump and other Republican candidates. As early as 2022, a group of anonymous SpaceX employees posted an open letter to executives on an internal company forum saying, "Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment."

Others, however, praise Musk for the inarguable contribution of reusable rockets that SpaceX introduced with the Falcon 9, and his aspiration to make humanity a multi-planetary species. He was also named Time Magazine's person of the year in 2021, and SpaceX has become an indispensable asset to NASA and U.S. spaceflight. The company's Crew Dragon capsule is currently the only American-launched spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station, and NASA has contracted SpaceX to design a lunar lander version of Starship to deliver astronauts to the surface of the moon on Artemis IV in 2028.

SpaceX's activities at Starbase have received scrutiny as well. When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted its environmental assessment of Starbase to approve Starship launches from the site in 2021, more than 18,000 comments were submitted by members of the public, delaying the report's publication for nearly half a year as each one was reviewed. When the FAA did publish its assessment, SpaceX was cleared for Starship launches out of Starbase, pending nearly 80 actions needed to ensure its reduced environmental impact on the area, which SpaceX soon addressed.

To date, SpaceX has launched 13 Starship test flights with varying degrees of success. Some have resulted in the awesome return and catch of the rocket's Super Heavy booster using the "Mechazilla" chopstick arms on the Starbase launch tower, others featured Starship debris raining down within view of populated areas like The Bahamas, and at least a couple launches ended with a combination of both those outcomes.

The very public display of exploding rockets from SpaceX over the last several years has raised more than a few eyebrows of people wondering about the repercussions of where that potential aerospace carnage might come crashing down. But those results are also indicative of SpaceX's iterative "test like you fly" philosophy for vehicle development.

Musk sees Starship as humanity's ticket to extending our species' footprint to the moon, Mars and beyond, and is often quoted saying, about Starship and other subject matter, that "we live on the most interesting timeline." If Starship lives up to Musk and SpaceX's promises, it stands to create another monumental, industry-changing impact on spaceflight history, with the potential to launch our civilization into the cosmos. And, if it has to lift off within sight of a monument calling SpaceX's CEO "a sad little b---- with no friends," that would be pretty interesting indeed.

Prolific NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has announced his retirement from the U.S. space agency after 30 years of public service.

NASA announced Fincke's decision on Wednesday (Aug. 12), celebrating his contributions to spaceflight and long career of accomplishments.

“Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that day in a statement. Fincke departs as NASA's fourth-most flown astronaut, racking up a cumulative 549 days in space over four separate spaceflights. During those, he performed nine spacewalks and served twice as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Most recently, he launched as pilot on SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the ISS, stepping into the role of commander for ISS Expedition 74 from August 2025 to January 2026.

Before his acceptance into NASA's 16th astronaut class in 1996, Fincke earned two bachelor's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in aeronautics and astronautics as well as Earth science, atmospheric and planetary sciences. Following his time at MIT, he did a summer stint at the Moscow Aviation Institute and later earned master's degrees in aeronautics and astronautics, and in planetary geology from Stanford and the University of Houston-Clear Lake, respectively.

Fincke also served in the U.S. Air Force prior to his career at NASA. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1994, then was assigned as a space systems engineer and flight test engineer at Edwards and Eglin Air Force bases in California and Florida, respectively. Those stints were followed by his role as U.S. flight-test liaison for the Japanese-U.S. XF-2 fighter program in Japan.

Following his two years of astronaut-candidate training, Fincke was assigned to NASA's Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch's Crew Test Support Team in Russia. There, he served as ISS CAPCOM (Spacecraft Communicator) and ISS crew procedures team lead until he began official spaceflight training in 1999.

His first rocket launch was aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 mission to the ISS in 2004, where he served as science officer and flight engineer for Expedition 9 and completed four EVAs (extravehicular activities, or spacewalks).

Fincke's second launch brought him back to the ISS in 2008, as a member of Soyuz TMA-13. It was then that Fincke took command of the space station for the first time. As Expedition 18 commander, Fincke added two more EVAs to his career total and oversaw the preparation of ISS facilities to begin supporting an increase from three-person to six-person crews.

Fincke was also aboard for the final launch of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-134 mission in 2011, which returned him to the ISS for a third time. As mission specialist and robotic-arm operator, he supported the installation of the space station's dark-matter-hunting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) instrument, and performed three additional EVAs that marked the official completion of ISS orbital assembly and were the last-ever spacewalks by a space shuttle crew.

By 2014, Fincke was serving as chief of the Astronaut Office’s Commercial Crew Branch, where he played a key role in the development and testing of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner spacecraft. In January 2019, he was assigned to Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission as joint operations commander, and he remained on the prime crew until June 2022, when he transitioned to the CFT backup crew.

Fincke's most recent mission, Crew-11, launched to the ISS in August 2025. It was the second time he was appointed commander of the space station, this time for Expedition 74, but his stint, and that of the other Crew-11 astronauts, was cut short due to an unexpected medical issue.

Leading up to what would have been his 10th career EVA, NASA abruptly canceled spacewalk prep by Fincke and fellow NASA astronaut Zena Cardman after a "medical concern" arose that took priority over the planned station maintenance. Though not considered an emergency, the episode was deemed serious enough for NASA to return the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth earlier than expected, and Fincke and his fellow crewmates safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon a week later.

During the mission, NASA did not reveal the afflicted astronaut's name and condition, citing privacy concerns. A little more than a month after Crew-11's return, however, NASA and Fincke revealed that he was the crew member who experienced the medical issue, which he later described as a temporary inability to speak, according to an Associated Press report. Fincke fully recovered from the episode and is now in good health.

“Mike approached every assignment with experience, humility, and an unwavering focus on the mission,” said Scott Tingle, chief of NASA's Astronaut Office, in the agency's announcement. “Whether flying aboard the station, supporting crews from the ground, or helping shape the spacecraft that future crews will rely on, he consistently strengthened our team. His legacy is woven into the way we fly today.”

NASA did not indicate if Fincke plans to continue his involvement with the space industry through the private sector, but did highlight his dedication to support humanity's drive to explore the cosmos.

"I remain deeply committed to the work of exploration," Fincke said in the statement. “NASA gave me the extraordinary privilege of serving alongside remarkable people, flying and helping develop spacecraft, and contributing to the International Space Station from its earliest days through command in orbit … I am excited to carry those lessons forward and help prepare the next generation of engineers, explorers, and leaders."

A U.S.-Russian crew returned to Earth from the International Space Station early Sunday morning (July 26), after 241 days in orbit.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos undocked from the orbiting lab on Sunday at 3:03 a.m. EDT (0703 GMT).

The Soyuz, known as MS-28, landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan 3 hours and 24 minutes later, at 6:27 a.m. EDT (1027 GMT).

The crew's departure activities began on Saturday morning with a change-of-command ceremony aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Kud‑Sverchkov handed over the reins of the orbiting lab to NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, part of the transition from ISS Expedition 74 to Expedition 75 (which officially began when Soyuz MS‑28 undocked).

The crew then gave their farewells and closed the hatches between the ISS and Soyuz MS-28 on Saturday night.

Soyuz MS-28 launched to the ISS on Nov. 27, which was Thanksgiving Day. That liftoff kicked off the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud‑Sverchkov, who now has logged 426 days and 9 minutes in space.

The MS-28 trio orbited Earth 3,856 times and traveled a total of more than 102 million miles (164 million kilometers).

Now back on Earth, the three spaceflyers were first flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where recovery teams were based. Williams then will return to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Kud‑Sverchkov and Mikaev head back to their training base in Star City, Russia.

LOS ANGELES — Standing in the shadow of the space shuttle Endeavour, a group of retired NASA astronauts announced their plan to travel the country visiting colleges to try to inspire younger generations to get out and vote. This campaign comes as we lead up to the November midterm election.

This past year, a group of retired NASA astronauts teamed up for a single cause: to defend the U.S. constitution. They banded together as part of a non-profit, non-partisan activist organization called Astronauts for America. So far, they have been speaking out, using their astronaut expertise, platforms, cultural relevance and role model status to speak out in support of "science, evidence-based decision-making, public service and the rule of law," their website reads. Now, as the group announced at an event at the California Science Center's new air and space center — home to the shuttle Endeavour — they're hitting the road on a campaign tour of colleges called "Vote for Freedom."

"We have to do what we can to ensure that the country makes it through the challenges that we're dealing with here, and that is the message that we're going to be taking to colleges and universities," Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart told Space.com. "And the agency that we have, the immediate agency, is to vote."

This tour will send astronauts from the group on a four-month jaunt across the country. Astronauts from the group's more than 100 members will visit state and community colleges, county fairs and even town halls, aiming to reach first-time voters and young people who might be new to voting.

"I'm really excited to look a bunch of younger Americans in the eye and make sure that they know that someone that they can trust said: ;Listen, you matter, because our country matters, and our country needs you,'" former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman told Space.com.

"It's with a uniquely American kind of freedom that we were able to go to the moon, and that same freedom launched the spaceship behind us 25 times into space. Now we see those freedoms under heavy threat," former NASA astronaut Steve Smith said during the event. "We're seeing chaos instead of community, violence instead of votes, lies instead of laws, and fear instead of fate. That's how democracy and freedom die."

"The mission is all that matters. Now, our country is the mission, and our message is simple: going to the polls is one small step for you, and one giant leap for our country," Smith added.

This campaign leads up to the U.S. midterm elections this November. Midterm elections happen halfway through every four-year presidency. This election allows voters to decide what Congress looks like, and which political party controls Congress. This can ultimately have a major impact on what laws and decisions are passed moving forward, and whether Congress will reject or change actions by the president moving forward. And this group of astronauts is serious about the importance of getting people out to exercise their right to vote.

"I'm a child of the segregated South; I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina," former astronaut and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who also serves as a steering committee member for Astronauts for America, said at the event. "I graduated in 1964. Anybody know what happened in 1964? The Voting Rights Act. So, as a person growing up in my hometown, it wasn't a guarantee that my mom and dad were going to be able to go out and vote. I look at what's going on today about people trying to restrict the ability of people to cast their ballot. That's not who we are. That's not America."

The group of astronauts recently spoke out about voting access after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the right to absentee voting, in response to attempts by the Trump administration to place restrictions on the current voting process. Especially leading up to the November midterms, each vote carries significant weight. And while this nonpartisan group isn't telling you who to vote for, they do think that everyone who can should vote.

"As astronauts, we signed an oath to our nation, and we are mission-oriented people. And our nation is now the mission," Coleman added. "We need to recognize that everyone's voice is important, and one of the voices that we don't hear very much is the young people. And we want them to understand that, even though sometimes change can seem daunting, their perspective is really important, and, you know, their voice is important."

A new ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court protecting voter rights could extend to astronauts living and working in space and training internationally, their families, and the multitude of NASA workers who travel to support their missions.

On Monday (June 29), the Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots can be counted toward a total vote even if they arrive after election day, as long as they are postmarked by election day. The ruling followed efforts by the Trump Administration to place restrictions on mail-in voting. In a new statement, the nonpartisan activist organization Astronauts for America spoke out in support of the Supreme Court's decision, which supports absentee voting.

"We don't want to see barriers put in place [that] make it more challenging for somebody to exercise their constitutional right of voting," retired NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence told Space.com. Lawrence is a member of Astronauts for America, as well as a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where she served as a captain, engineer and helicopter pilot.

What happened?

An executive order issued by President Trump in March 2026 attempted to place a number of restrictions on voting in the country, including limitations on mail-in or absentee voting. The order directed the United States Postal Service to only transmit ballots for states that compile and submit lists of eligible mail-in voters 60 days before elections, added requirements and complications to mail-in ballots and attempted to limit who receives a ballot in the mail.

This order not only added layers to limit voting access, but it conflicted with existing procedures set by states for absentee voting. Additionally, the U.S. Constitution places the authority to change election rules and processes with Congress, not the president, though this was not the first executive order put out by Trump to attempt to change election rules, CNN has reported.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court blocked the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out this executive order, declaring that mail-in ballots may be counted if they arrive up to five days after election day, as long as they are postmarked by election day.

"This is key to making sure we have free and fair elections, that people have the ability to cast their vote, and it's not an overwhelming burden for them to do that again," said Lawrence.

Astronauts vote (and so do the people around them)

In a statement shared on social media, Astronauts for America commented on the recent ruling.

"We at Astronauts for America are pleased to see the justices take this critical step toward safeguarding free and fair elections, and ensuring that every eligible voter has their ballot counted," the statement reads. "As astronauts, some of us cast our votes from space. As military veterans, many of us relied on voting by mail. Upholding this grace period ensures that astronauts and other Americans are able to exercise their civil rights."

"Voting is the cornerstone of our American democracy, and this is an important step forward in our battle to ensure everyone has the right to vote," the statement continued. "While the Supreme Court ruling should be celebrated, we must continue standing up for our democracy and constitutional principles."

Astronauts have used absentee voting systems for decades, and they do so regularly: Astronauts have been living in orbit on board the International Space Station continuously since November 2000. When astronauts are going to be in space during an election, NASA has a digital system that allows them to submit absentee votes. But as the statement above suggests, astronauts don't just need absentee voting during their space missions.

Astronaut training can take place all around the world, especially if there is a mission with international collaboration. Lawrence shared that, during her tenure with NASA's space shuttle program, there was a 16-month period when she had to live and train full-time in Russia. And, astronauts don't prepare for space in a vacuum. Family members like spouses might travel with them for long-term training, and there are a wide variety of mission managers and support staff for crewed missions (and their families) who might have to be on long-term travel as well.

Additionally, many astronauts like Lawrence are also military veterans who, during their service, are only able to vote through absentee voting, sometimes for years on end. While this ruling extends far past astronauts, even within the space sector, absentee voting has protected the constitutional rights of many.

Wally Funk, who flew to space at 82 after a lifetime of flying and fighting for women in aviation and aerospace, has passed away at age 87.

Born in Texas in 1939, Funk was determined to take to the skies, flying as a teenager and becoming a professional aviator at the tender age of 20. Her dreams extended even beyond Earth, and in 1961 she joined the "Mercury 13" group of women who completed the testing given to NASA's male astronauts. But Funk was the only Mercury 13 alum to ever reach space. After a lifetime of flying, in July 2021, the then 82-year-old Funk launched to suborbital space aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard vehicle, a trip that she described as "incredible."

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Wally Funk," Blue Origin shared in a statement on X on Thursday (July 9). "Wally was a pioneer in every sense of the word … On NS-16, sixty years later, Wally made history as the oldest astronaut at the time and remains the oldest woman to ever fly to space. It was a moment six decades in the making. We were humbled to be part of her journey. Her story will continue to inspire generations of future explorers. Fly Wally, Fly."

Making space history

Funk's spaceflight was historic in every sense of the word. "I've been waiting a long time to finally get up there," she said during a livestreamed postflight briefing at the time. "I've done a lot of astronaut training through the world — Russia, America … I could always beat the guys on what they were doing, because I was always stronger. I've always done everything on my own."

At the time of her spaceflight, Funk was the oldest person to ever go to space. But she was also the only member of the Mercury 13 to ever make it there. Funk joined the group, officially called the "Women in Space" program, as its youngest member at only 21 years old. Led by physician William Lovelace, the program put a group of young women through the same rigorous physical and mental testing as NASA's male astronauts to see how they would fare. And, across the board, the group either kept pace with or even excelled by comparison.

While the program didn't have official government sponsorship, there was hope that success could pave the way for women to be allowed into the human spaceflight program. (NASA astronauts were all male at the time; the agency didn't select a female astronaut candidate until 1978.) And in a way, it did, though it took far longer than the group likely expected.

Despite the group not leading to spaceflight access for women at the time, the participants proved their capability beyond doubt. In one particular test, participants were submerged in a sensory deprivation tank, a test meant to measure a participant's mental fortitude. While famed NASA astronaut John Glenn — who became the first American to orbit Earth — lasted three hours in the tank, Funk stayed in for a whopping 10 hours and 35 minutes.

'Married to airplanes'

Though Funk was quite young when she joined the Mercury 13, she'd already racked up years of aviation experience and an impressive array of accomplishments. In fact, Funk, who never married, famously said that she was "married to airplanes."

From her teenage experience with the "Flying Susies," Funk found her way to the skies as early as possible. And following her participation in the Mercury 13 program, Funk became the first female civilian flight instructor at a U.S. military base. Her aviation career was storied; she served as the National Transportation Safety Board's first female Air Safety Investigator, competed in air races and was even chief pilot for multiple aviation schools across the country, sharing her knowledge and expertise with countless aviation hopefuls.

But while she continued to make history and pursue her passions in aviation, her love for space never dwindled. When NASA finally began accepting women into the astronaut corps in the late 1970s, Funk was quick to apply. She applied three separate times but was denied on each occasion. Despite these setbacks, she remained close to the space world, even attending a launch with fellow former Mercury 13 members in 1995 to see NASA astronaut Eileen Collins lift off as the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.

A dream, realized

With her spaceflight dream still aflame, Funk was once again quick to act when Blue Origin got New Shepard fully up on running. And on July 20, 2021, Funk finally realized this lifelong goal, on the first-ever crewed flight of the suborbital spacecraft. (Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos was on that flight as well, along with his brother Mark, Funk and Dutch student Oliver Daemen.)

In thinking of her many aviation students, she said at the time, "I don't know if they're going to get to see this or not … but I felt so charged. I was just a normal person going up into space."

Funk will be remembered for her passion, her dedication and her many accomplishments across aviation and aerospace, which will continue to inspire aviators for generations to come.

Mid-spacewalk, one NASA astronaut had to take a moment to show off his muscles.

What is it?

NASA astronaut Chris Williams recently left the confines of the International Space Station for a 7-hour-and-20-minute spacewalk with fellow astronaut Jessica Meir. This was Williams' second spacewalk and Meir's fifth.

In a moment of fun, Williams flexed his muscles for a photo snapped by Meir during the strenuous spacewalk. With a big grin on his face, visible even through his spacesuit helmet, Williams raised his arms in a classic Muscle Beach pose as planet Earth glowed hundreds of miles beneath him.

But the pair of astronauts weren't playing around in space; this spacewalk had a serious purpose. On June 30, Williams and Meir ventured into the void to replace a wrist joint on the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm that had been malfunctioning.

Canadarm2 has been operating for over 25 years, so it makes sense that every once in a while it needs a repair or upgrade. After making this swap, the old wrist joint will be sent back to Earth to be fixed in case it needs to be used as backup in the future.

Why is it incredible?

Williams' demeanor in this photo makes it seem like spacewalks are fun, or even easy. But his smile and playful pose for the camera are a major contrast to the incredible strength, stamina and careful work that it takes to complete a spacewalk.

From preparation to suiting up, and doing incredibly precise work with a spacesuit on while floating in the vacuum of space while tethered to the space station, spacewalks are incredibly hard work. Williams may have been having a fun moment with Meir showing off in this photo, but the pair of astronauts were certainly using their muscles to get a tough job done.