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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Axiom Mission 2 crew to the International Space Station at 5:37 p.m. Sunday from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo Left to right, mission specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi, commander Peggy Whitson and pilot John Shoffner headed to the International Space Station after being launched Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo courtesy of Axiom Space CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 21 (UPI) -- A four-member crew lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket late Sunday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center in...

Astronaut Christina Koch will spend nearly a year aboard the International Space Station, NASA announced on Wednesday, with her return trip delayed to February 2020. During her 11 months in space, she will monitor how her body responds to the mission, producing much-needed data about how well human bodies can withstand the dangers and hardships of long-term spaceflight. So far, that data has been difficult to come by. Standard space station missions last about six and a half months, and only a handful of NASA astronauts have stayed in orbit longer than 200 days in a single spaceflight. That's problematic...

NASA's record-breaking astronaut Peggy Whitson returned home on the Soyuz from an extended 288-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). During her stay, she set a new record for the most cumulative time in space by an American with 665 days accrued. Her crewmates, NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin both spent 136 days aboard the orbiting laboratory. Landing occuured at 9:21 p.m. EDT (0121 Sept. 3 GMT), though it was Sunday morning local time at the touchdown site. ... They successfully touched down on target in a remote area near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan....

NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson set the endurance record for time in space by a U.S, astronaut today, Monday, April 24, during her current stint of living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) along with her multinational crew of five astronauts and cosmonauts. Furthermore Whitson received a long distance phone call of exuberant congratulations from President Donald Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump, and fellow astronaut Kate Rubins direct from the Oval Office in the White House to celebrate the momentous occasion. “This is a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight!” said President Trump during the...

Whitson will be celebrating her 57th birthday aboard the ISS in February 2017. On completion of her 179-day stint aboard the ISS, she will rewrite several space record books. She is already the oldest woman to orbit the earth. She will hold the record as the woman with the most time in space. She will also become the American astronaut with the most time in space, 556 days, beating the existing record, 534 days, of astronaut Jeff Williams. Among the other crew members, the 45-year-old Novitskiy is on his second flight into space, having already spent 144 days on an...