Houston plays a big role in ensuring astronauts’ votes count

NASA named three Americans and one Canadian to the Artemis II crew during a ceremony in Houston Monday.

Former NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken will be awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for bravery in NASA’s SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2 (Demo-2) to the International Space Station in 2020.

With tensions rising between the US and Russia, many have been on the cooperation between the two countries, especially when it comes to space.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A small air leak at the International Space Station finally has been traced to the Russian side, following a middle-of-the-night search by astronauts. Space station deputy program manager Kenny Todd said the good news is that “instead of a bunch of haystacks, we're down to maybe one haystack." But he added: “It's still a needle we're looking for.”NASA is sending up extra air supply tanks on its next space station delivery, scheduled for a Thursday departure from Virginia. As long as the leak does not worsen, Todd said, the space station should be fine through next spring. In two weeks, two Russians and an American are scheduled to arrive at the space station, followed by crew of three Americans and a Japanese on SpaceX's second launch of astronauts, now targeted for Oct. 31.

On Jan. 28, 1986, seven astronauts were killed when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.