Topic
Crewed missions, the vehicles that fly them and the distance and duration records they set.
NASA reports Orion's Artemis II heat shield had nine spots of char loss, down from 103 on Artemis I, after a change to the reentry trajectory. The comparison rests on two flights and NASA's own review.
Reality
NASA released three reports and a data archive from Artemis II on October 7, three days before its six-month deadline. Science News reports that the crew's spoken and written notes proved more valuable than the photos.
Reality
NASA will make astronaut Christina Koch acting deputy chief engineer on Nov. 1, ending her eligibility for future spaceflight assignments. She takes the seat Katherine Van Hooser leaves when she retires Oct. 21, and Amit Kshatriya holds the chief engineer title.
Reality
NASA released a preliminary Artemis II lunar science report built from the four-person crew's photos, spoken notes and drawings. Researchers can now test whether those observations hold science that instruments alone would have missed.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
The four astronauts of NASA's Crew-12 mission splashed down off California on Oct 8, a day after undocking from the space station. The Guardian reported that capsule repairs held up their replacements by three weeks, adding time to a hurried relief tour that lasted eight months.
Perspective Coverage
5 publishersReality
NASA's Crew-13 launched four crew Thursday on a Dragon due to dock at the space station 7 hours 50 minutes later, a U.S. record by NASA's account. NASA stated the record before the docking took place, so it holds only once the 7 p.m. arrival happens.
Perspective Coverage
7 publishersReality
SpaceX's Crew-13 Dragon reached the ISS 7 hours 55 minutes after launch, 6 hours 48 minutes under the previous crewed record. NASA credited luck in where the station sat, so docking-day plans should still assume the longer catch-up path.
Reality
NASA's Crew-12, four astronauts from NASA, ESA and Roscosmos, is due back from the space station in early October. The agency's look back sets out what the crew's experiments in drug crystallisation, bone repair and quantum physics were built to test.
Reality
NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 will fly four astronauts from three agencies to the space station no earlier than Oct. 1. Its research includes human stem-cell-derived heart and Parkinson's tissue models, and their value will depend on how they compare with matched samples kept on the ground.
Reality
NASA and Boeing plan an uncrewed Starliner flight in December or January, with astronauts to follow in mid-2028 if it goes well. The agency is spending that time to secure a second American crew ferry for the years after SpaceX retires Crew Dragon.
Reality
Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover moved to emeritus advisory roles at NASA to help teams prepare Artemis III for 2027. Their Orion experience will now reach that Earth-orbit docking test through volunteer mentoring.
Reality
NASA and ESA will coordinate blood draws from Crew-13 astronauts in a joint clotting study, one of six human studies on the mission. The study asks why weightlessness disturbs venous blood flow in some astronauts but not others, and answering that depends on how many crew take part.
Reality
A Circulation study co-led by UT Southwestern measured astronaut hearts during six-month station missions, the window earlier work left blank, and reports the early shrinkage stayed inside what Mars-level gravity would demand.
Reality
SpaceX will not commit to flying Crew Dragon much beyond 2030, and its president says Boeing should fly its own capsule. NASA is responding by paying to make Starliner flightworthy on a rocket it does not yet have.
Reality
A Circulation study followed cardiac structure through full six-month missions using ultrasound the crews ran themselves. Because every astronaut completed the prescribed exercise, it cannot separate the countermeasure from the adaptation.
Reality
The Artemis II crew flew 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than anyone before them. The medals presented in Houston close the mission out institutionally, while its successor is scheduled to stay in low Earth orbit.
Reality