New Astronauts Arrive at ISS as First X-Ray Images Are Taken in Space
This week, three new crew members arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday. The team includes American astronaut Anil Menon, a former U.S. Air Force colonel and emergency medicine specialist who completed NASA training in 2024, and two Russian cosmonauts, Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. Dubrov previously spent nearly a year on the ISS in 2021-22, while Kikina, the only active female Russian cosmonaut, stayed over five months in 2022-23. The crew will remain on the station for eight months conducting numerous experiments, including Menon’s work on advanced AI-assisted ultrasound technologies to reduce reliance on Earth-based medical support.
In a related milestone, the private FRAM-2 mission team last year captured the first X-ray images in space using a portable device tested initially on a zero-gravity aircraft. Led by astronaut physician Sheyna Gifford from Mayo Clinic, the experiment demonstrated that non-medical personnel could operate X-ray equipment effectively after brief training. The results, published in Radiology, highlight the potential for autonomous X-ray diagnostics in space and on Earth, with Gifford noting the possibility of revolutionizing global public health through miniature, self-operating X-ray devices.
SpaceX planned to launch its 13th Starship test flight overnight from Texas but postponed the launch due to a last-minute technical issue. The suborbital flight of the new V3 model was to include in-space engine firing and deployment of real Starlink satellites for communication tests, followed by a controlled ocean landing near Australia. SpaceX continues refining heat shield tiles and landing maneuvers after a previous booster crash caused by engine control problems.
Meanwhile, China’s state space corporation CASC successfully performed a controlled ocean landing of the first stage of its Long March 10B rocket after deploying a satellite into orbit. This reusable rocket technology mirrors SpaceX’s Falcon 9 approach but uses a net-capture system on the landing platform to prevent tipping or hard impacts. China is developing multiple reusable launch vehicles, signaling a growing global shift toward cost-efficient space access.
A new study published in PNAS Nexus analyzed 4,400 space launches from 1960 to 2025, finding launch costs per kilogram to orbit have dropped by 96 percent, from $87,000 to under $4,000. Researchers predict prices could fall below $400 per kilogram by 2040, driven by increased launch volume and innovations like Starship. However, challenges such as space debris, geopolitical market fragmentation, and industry concentration could slow this trend.
In astronomy, scientists discovered sugar molecules for the first time outside the solar system in a gas and dust cloud at the Milky Way’s center. Using spectroscopic data, they identified erythrose, a sugar with four carbon atoms, suggesting complex organic chemistry occurs in star-forming regions. This finding, published in Nature Astronomy, supports theories that such molecules contributed to the origins of life by seeding early Earth with essential compounds like nucleic acid precursors.
