Image (Credit): Replica of the Soviet Union’sVernera 8 landing capsule launched towards Venus. (European Space Agency)
“As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact.”
-Statement by Marco Langbroek, an expert on Space Situational Awareness at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, pertaining to the Venera 8 probe that was to be sent to Venus by the Soviets more than 50 years ago. However, the probe, renamed Kosmos 482, never left Earth orbit. Only now is it ready to return to the Earth’s surface tonight, though the exact location is unknown.
“You’re floating, and your body, all these little aches and pains, and everything heal up, and you feel like you’re 30 years old again and free of pain, free of everything, and ready to do your mission work. So, I love being in orbit. It’s a great place to be for me and my physiology.”
-Comment by NASA astronaut Don Pettit during a press conference after his return to Earth from the International Space Station. The 70-year-old spent 220 days on the station. His 70th birthday was the same day he returned to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Image (Credit): The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft carrying Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner back to Earth from the ISS on April 19, 2025 (April 20, 2025, Kazakhstan time). (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Here are some recent stories of interest related to the International Space Station (ISS).
A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station landed Sunday in Kazakhstan, ending their seven-month research assignment. According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the capsule carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and astronaut Don Pettit of U.S. space agency NASA landed on the Kazakh steppe near the city of Zhezkazgan at 6:20 a.m. (0120 GMT). Roscosmos said the parachute-assisted landing was a trouble-free descent.
A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) this morning (April 22), wrapping up about 28 hours traveling on orbit to close the gap between them. Elon Musk’s company launched its 32nd robotic resupply mission to the ISS for NASA early Monday morning (April 21), sending a Dragon freighter aloft from Florida’s Space Coast.
During a meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) held on Thursday, members of a NASA safety panel stated that there are growing risks threatening the space station as it nears the end of its use, SpaceNews reported. “The ISS has entered the riskiest period of its existence,” Rich Williams, a member of the panel, said during the meeting. At the top of the list of growing risks is a leak where air has been escaping at an increasing rate from a tunnel that connects a docking port to a Russian module.
Image (Credit): A Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 73 crew members on April 8, 2025 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL, Harvard Medical School graduate and now a NASA astronaut, blasted off with two cosmonaut crewmates aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket early Tuesday, chased down the International Space Station and moved in for a picture-perfect docking three hours after liftoff. With veteran commander Sergey Ryzhikov, 50, at the controls, flanked on the left by rookie cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky, 32, and on the right by Kim, 41, the Soyuz MS-27/73S ferry ship rocketed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 a.m. EDT (10:47 a.m. local time).
NASA may consolidate work in some regional offices, shifting thousands of jobs, but has no plans for massive layoffs or the elimination of major departments, acting administrator Janet Petro said Monday. The changes in the structure of the space agency’s work force reflect both an effort to cut costs and improve collaboration as the Trump administration pushes ambitious space goals, Petro told POLITICO.
NASA’s annual Human Exploration Rover Challenge returns Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, with student teams competing at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge course near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.In addition to the traditional human-powered rover division, this year’s competition expands the challenge to include a remote-control division…Participating teams represent 35 colleges and universities, 38 high schools, and two middle schools from 20 states, Puerto Rico, and 16 other nations.
While the current White House discussions with Russia regarding its invasion of Ukraine has already raised some eyebrows, the Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent has reported that Russia appears to be making a separate offer to Elon Musk.
The newspaper reports that Russia has offered Mr. Musk a “small-sized nuclear power plant” for a future mission to Mars. Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, called Mr. Musk a “great visionary.”
The newspaper also notes that Mr. Dmitriev has plans for a set of separate talks with Mr. Musk, stating:
Russia seeks cooperation with Musk’s SpaceX company in developing Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, and state-run nuclear energy company Rosatom.
Given that both President Trump and Mr. Musk need constant praise, it seems the Russians know who to push the buttons of both men. Of course, the Starlink system assisting the Ukranian military has been a Russian irritant from the very beginning, so you can assume any offer to Mr. Musk will come with a price tag.
Of course, maybe it makes sense to send Mr. Musk and his DOGE team to Russia now to assist with the restructuring of Roscosmos. That may be the best way to save NASA from his “vision” while ensuring Russia will not be a competitor for a very long time.
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