astronaut

If the cuts go ahead, Aschbacher said, they could also affect shared missions such as the use of the International Space Station and the Artemis programme to put astronauts back on the Moon, he said.

The people of the world saw their planet as the astronauts saw it - fragile and beautiful, shining in the desolation of space.

Researchers at the University of Kent have shown that it is possible to grow tea in lunar soil, a discovery that could transform how future astronauts live and work in lunar and outer space environments.

NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon relies on a version of the Starship upper stage called the Human Landing System that SpaceX is building.

Mission specialist Christina Koch explained that the astronauts would be able to study the lunar surface in exquisite detail for a full three hours.