Problems with the capsule's propulsion system, used to maneuver the spacecraft, prompted NASA and Boeing to delay the flight home several times while they analyzed the trouble.
Space Camp is a new series about all the weird, wonderful things happening in the universe by NPR's science podcast Short Wave. Check out the rest of the series.
A NASA simulation accidentally aired on the space agency's livestream. NASA said all crew members are healthy, safe and preparing for a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday.
A helium leak pushed back a planned launch to May 25. Boeing's program that would shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station has been plagued with problems.
When a private space traveler said he wanted to take a SpaceX capsule on a mission to improve the aging Hubble telescope, NASA studied the options. Internal emails show concern about the risk.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told NPR he sees the U.S. in an urgent race with China to find water on the moon, and that he trusts SpaceX, despite Elon Musk's increasingly controversial profile.
Edward J. Dwight Jr. is set to be on the next Blue Origin rocket into space. The rare opportunity comes more than six decades after he was passed over to become a NASA astronaut.
Few humans have had the opportunity to see Earth from space, much less live in space. We got to talk to one of these lucky people — NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara. She will soon conclude her nearly seven month stay on the International Space Station.
Transmitting from space to your ears, Loral talks to host Regina G. Barber about her dreams in microgravity, and her research on the ISS: 3D-printing human heart tissue, how the human brain and body adapt to microgravity, and how space changes the immune systems of plants.
Have questions you want us to send to outers pace? Email us at shortwave@npr.org!
Tom Stafford commanded the first Apollo mission to dock with a Soviet craft in space. He also served as commander of Apollo 10 - the dress rehearsal before NASA's first landing on the moon in 1969.
The four crewmembers spent a half-year on the International Space Station conducting dozens of experiments and science research. NASA's Crew-8 mission relieved them on the orbital outpost last week.
Voyager 1 has been traveling through space since 1977, and some scientists hoped it could keep sending back science data for 50 years. But a serious glitch has put that milestone in jeopardy.