WhyCosmo

The International Space Station (ISS) is facing one of its biggest challenges as NASA and Russia's Roscosmos reveal a worrying update. A long-standing leak, identified in the Russian segment of the ISS back in 2019, has escalated. According to a recent report, 50 "areas of concern" have now been documented, with four cracks and persistent leaks raising concerns about astronaut safety. The International Space Station.   (Image credit: NASA) The Ongoing Struggle to Fix the ISS Leak NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a new report in September, confirming that fixing this leak is an urgent safety priority for astronauts on board. The leaks, originating in the Zvezda module (part of the Russian segment), were first patched up, but cracks persist. The cracks are located near a hatch, and NASA has arranged a compromise with Roscosmos to close it as much as possible during nighttime for extra safety. While NASA assures the leak doesn’t pose an immediate risk, i...

  NASA has decided to end the operational life of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2030 and has awarded SpaceX a massive $843 million contract to safely bring the ISS back to Earth. SpaceX will use a specially designed deorbit vehicle to ensure the space station makes a controlled reentry into the Earth's atmosphere and crashes into the ocean. Key Highlights: End of an Era : The ISS has been a hub for international cooperation in space since 1998. It has hosted astronauts from the U.S., Japan, Russia, Canada, and Europe, and facilitated over 3,300 scientific experiments. Aging and Safety Concerns : Technical faults and space debris pose increasing risks. Recently, astronauts had to take shelter due to debris from a shattered Russian satellite. Future Plans : New commercial space stations like Axiom Space's Axiom Station and Blue Origin's Orbital Reef are set to replace the ISS by the end of this decade. Global Responsibility : The deorbiting of the ISS is a shar...

 Auroras (the northern and southern lights) are visible from the ground after powerful solar storms, but these natural light shows look even more majestic from above. Here are 24 spectacular photos of auroras taken from space. 1. View of the Southern Lights from Challenger  A green aurora slices through the Southern Hemisphere between Antarctica and Australia. This vintage shot of the southern lights was captured in April 1985 by astronaut Robert F. Overmyer aboard the space shuttle Challenger. (Image credit: NASA / Robert F. Overmyer) 2. Aurora over Moscow The northern lights swoop beneath a full moon as Moscow glows like a golden spider on the left of the frame. This photo was taken in April 2014 by an Expedition 39 crewmember aboard the International Space Station (ISS). (Image credit: NASA / Rick Mastracchio) 3. A World-Eating Serpent A vivid-green, nearly round aurora curls over the Southern Hemisphere like an enormous serpent. This exquisite photo was taken with NASA's I...