NASA is considering scaling back its activities on the International Space Station, according to multiple sources. The changes, which are being considered primarily due to shortfalls in the space station budget, include:

• Reducing the size of the crew complement of Crew Dragon missions from four to three, starting with Crew-12 in February 2026
• Extending the duration of space station missions from six to eight months
• Canceling all upgrades to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer science instrument attached to the station

The changes align with a desire that was reflected in the Trump administration's "skinny budget" proposal for NASA, released last Friday, which seeks to have the US space agency reduce its activities on the ISS.

"The Budget reduces the space station’s crew size and onboard research, preparing for a safe decommissioning of the station by 2030 and replacement by commercial space stations," stated the budget request for fiscal year 2026. "Crew and cargo flights to the station would be significantly reduced. The station’s reduced research capacity would be focused on efforts critical to the Moon and Mars exploration programs."

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The astronauts will begin the extravehicular activity at 8:00 a.m. ET on Thursday.

The astronaut celebrated his birthday with a return to Earth after seven months on the ISS.

Growing air leaks, and the lack of a deorbit plan top the list of concerns for the aging space station.

Welcome to Edition 7.39 of the Rocket Report! Not getting your launch fix? Buckle up. We're on the cusp of a boom in rocket launches as three new megaconstellations have either just begun or will soon begin deploying thousands of satellites to enable broadband connectivity from space. If the megaconstellations come to fruition, this will require more than a thousand launches in the next few years, on top of SpaceX's blistering Starlink launch cadence. We discuss the topic of megaconstellations in this week's Rocket Report.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

So, what is SpinLaunch doing now? Ars Technica has mentioned SpinLaunch, the company that literally wants to yeet satellites into space, in previous Rocket Report newsletters. This company enjoyed some success in raising money for its so-crazy-it-just-might-work idea of catapulting rockets and satellites into the sky, a concept SpinLaunch calls "kinetic launch." But SpinLaunch is now making a hard pivot to small satellites, a move that, on its face, seems puzzling after going all-in on kinetic launch and even performing several impressive hardware tests, throwing a projectile to altitudes of up to 30,000 feet. Ars got the scoop, with the company's CEO detailing why and how it plans to build a low-Earth orbit telecommunications constellation with 280 satellites.

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The experiment could go a long way towards helping space travelers make their own nutritious, delicious ingredients.

The Cygnus spacecraft sustained damage on its way to the launch site and was deemed unfit to fly.

The Starliner crew was originally meant to stay on board the ISS for a week, but issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft severely delayed their return to Earth.

SpaceX successfully launched four people into space on Friday, beginning a mission that will give the International Space Station enough crew members to allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return to Earth after their nine-month stay. The mission, known as Crew-10, will see SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft dock with the International Space Station (ISS) […]

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A Falcon 9 rocket launched four astronauts safely into orbit on Friday evening, marking the official beginning of the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station.

Although any crew launch into orbit is notable, this mission comes with an added bit of importance as its success clears the way for two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to finally return home from space after a saga spanning nine months.

Friday's launch came two days after an initial attempt was scrubbed on Wednesday evening. This was due to a hydraulic issue with the ground systems that handle the Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A in Florida.

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Astronauts on the International Space Station often suffer from various immune system dysfunctions, including allergies and skin rashes, even though they go through rigorous screening and are probably among the healthiest people on (or at least near) Earth. “It’s hard to pinpoint the exact causes for a lot of these symptoms, but we believe microbiome disruptions that happen in their bodies and in their environment up there could be playing an important part”, says Rodolfo Salido Benitez, a bioengineering researcher at the University of California, San Diego who co-authored the largest study on the ISS microbiome to date.

After analyzing over 800 samples collected by astronauts in multiple modules of the United States Orbital Segment in the ISS, Benitez and his team concluded the microbial and chemical environment on the station closely resembled the one found at COVID-19 isolation wards during the height of the pandemic. And that may be less than ideal for keeping people healthy.

Swabbing the space decks

Monitoring microbial life on the ISS is an ongoing effort, and studies of this sort have been done before, although at a much smaller scale. “Previous studies used a low number of samples that could not identify all microbial and chemical factors present up there,” said Nina Zhao, a researcher at the UCSD and co-author of the study.

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The billionaire and presidential buddy is focused on Mars but ignores the many reasons why ditching the ISS too soon is a mistake.

The president and his right-hand man baselessly accused Joe Biden of stranding Boeing astronauts on the ISS for political reasons.

The record-breaking spacewalk set a new women's record for total spacewalking time and saw the astronauts finally remove faulty radio communications hardware, among other tasks.

The survival of organisms in the vacuum of space could support the theory that life didn't start on Earth, but originated elsewhere in the galaxy.

Two Stranded Starliner astronauts will exit the space station for the first NASA spacewalks scheduled in over six months.

The space agency is looking to maintain human presence in the microgravity environment as it transitions to commercial stations.

Don Pettit packed a home-made tracker to space, allowing him to bless our timelines with long-exposure images.

The flying specks of light are Starlink satellites, far from a celestial wonder.

The Progress 90 cargo ship arrived at the ISS with three tons of supplies, and a foul odor.