nasa tour of space station

This International Space Station VR experience lets you explore the ISS… and it’s as amazing as it sounds

VR allows you to reach places and achieve things that most can only dream about, including floating around the International Space Station

Think about what VR actually is. In the literal sense VR, of course, stands for ‘virtual reality’. Let’s examine that phrase for a moment, shall we? Without getting too philosophical, we can all agree on what reality is. But, it’s worth remembering that ‘virtual’ has a double meaning. While it means existing digitally, not physically, it also means ‘almost.’ ‘Nearly.’ ‘ Very close. ’ We promise this is going somewhere, and you’ve actually landed on Space.com and not Dictionary.com.

The idea of doing in an alternate ‘almost’ reality what you cannot in the real world is very appealing. That’s why people seek out the best VR headsets , like the PlayStation VR or Oculus Quest 2 . We’re not talking about things like soaring through the sky as a bird or going on an adventure on an alien planet with futuristic weapons (although VR does allow you to do these things). Rather, we’re thinking about things that you theoretically could do in the real world, but for various reasons may never get the chance to. Mountain climbing, visiting a rainforest, racing at extreme speeds, going into space – things like that. 

Virtual reality presents an opportunity to experience a wide range of otherwise unobtainable experiences quickly, easily, safely, and often for free. It’s not the real thing, of course, but it’s much closer than you could otherwise get.

Space in VR

One thing that the vast majority of people will never get the chance to do, but that a significant percentage of those same people would love to do, is become an astronaut and visit space. Without the years of mental and physical training necessary (or just… being a billionaire ), the next best thing we have is virtual reality. For example, Mission: ISS offers a tantalizing taste of astronaut life, and it’s free. You can get it from the Oculus store for the Oculus Quest 2 system.

Made with help from NASA, Mission: ISS gives you a little corner of the International Space Station to explore. You’re able to navigate tight spaces in zero gravity, look outside to see the Earth hanging below, and gently bat floating items out of your way – the full astronaut experience!

There’s an educational component to the experience, most explicitly in terms of the optional pop-ups to be found. If something is highlighted in yellow when you point at it – a spacesuit, say, or a control console – you can hold the trigger to reveal text and a photo or sometimes a video. Here, a NASA astronaut will talk briefly about their experiences. It’s not all dry technical stuff, either. Have you ever wondered how an astronaut washes their hair in zero gravity? Well, if you haven’t before, you certainly are now. That’s one mystery that Mission: ISS can clear up for you.

Nonetheless, you’re free to completely ignore these if you wish, and concentrate on playing astronaut yourself. As we mentioned, this is a zero-gravity experience. You can use the left stick to push yourself forwards and backwards to make things a little easier, but you can (and will) also need to grab onto handholds to push and pull yourself along in every direction. It can take a little while to master moving around in this way. But then, of course it can, this isn’t something most people are accustomed to.

Mission: ISS - The missions

You can even go on a simulated spacewalk. Typing this, we can still remember gingerly using our propulsion unit in conjunction with the hand-led navigation we’d practiced using while inside. With the Earth looming large below us, we carefully made our way to the area we were asked to check and back, noticing a release of tension once we’d reached the airlock. It’s alarmingly easy to drift off course or to go too far, and the tether attached to an astronaut’s spacesuit isn’t indestructible…

There’s another, safer, but equally tricky mission. From the safety of the inside of the ISS, you’ll be able to operate the Canadarm 2 which is a giant robotic arm. It’s not nearly as simple as you might expect. Operating the arm involves using two sticks while observing it on two separate monitors. It’s slow, demanding, and really makes you feel like you’re doing proper astronaut work.

Simulating some of the work done on the ISS is very cool, but there’s a simple joy to be had just making your way around. The interior is packed full of detail. While it’s a shame that you can’t open up the labeled boxes of astronaut food, you’ll love taking in the fine detail added to screens, and rewarding yourself with a tricky zero-g journey through the entirety of the available area.

VR video experiences 

There are plenty of other apps and games that emulate space travel or take place in space (like these best PSVR space games ), as well as a huge variety of other bucket list experiences. Many cost money, albeit not that much. However, if you’re on a tight budget now that you’ve got your VR headset, another option is VR video. Again, some of these need to be paid for, but there are a huge number of free ones on YouTube (such as this spacewalk , this skydive experience , or the David Blaine balloon stunt ) and within certain apps and VR storefronts.

When it comes to 360 degree VR videos, downloading is always the best option, as streaming them tends to provide a fairly low resolution. Thanks to free streaming VR videos we have (virtually) skydived, ridden a motorbike at terrifying speed, accompanied a solo explorer to the South Pole, flown above world-famous cities, traveled deep below the surface of the ocean, and much more – all this without ever having to leave your house (well, once you’ve learnt how to set up your room for VR ). While VR videos aren’t strictly speaking interactive, they do allow you to look all around you while enjoying the extra immersion that VR offers by default. 

VR can’t give you the money, knowledge, physique, or equipment that you may be missing for your dream experience. However, it can instantly bypass all those requirements to bring you very, very close. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that? Things will, after all, be virtually the same. 

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Luke has been a professional part-time freelancer since 2017, specializing in videogames but also covering entertainment, science, and technology. He is a regular contributor to PLAY and PC Gamer magazine, and has written for online outlets including Eurogamer, Space.com, and The Guardian website. He has also dabbled in published fiction, having previously written horror stories for a text chat app, and contributing to a short story anthology supporting Alzheimer's Research UK. 

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May 6, 2024 | SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-57

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• Launch Provider: SpaceX
• Rocket Type: Falcon 9 | Block 5
• Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 40
• Description: Global broadband communications
• Landing: Droneship

SpaceX's Starlink is the constellation of networked satellites aimed to provide internet services to those who are not yet connected, and to provide reliable and affordable internet across the globe.

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Boeing forced to scrub first crewed Starliner launch to the space station

NASA and Boeing were forced to stand down from an attempted launch to the International Space Station on Monday because of a last-minute issue that cropped up with a valve on the spacecraft’s rocket.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule had been scheduled to lift off at 10:34 p.m. ET from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on its first crewed test flight. NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were on board the capsule and strapped into their seats when the launch attempt was called off, roughly two hours ahead of the planned liftoff.

NASA announced early Tuesday that a second attempt would occur no earlier than Friday .

Mission controllers declared Monday’s launch “scrub” after an anomaly was detected on a valve on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, which the Starliner capsule was to ride into orbit.

United Launch Alliance officials said in a post on X that the launch attempt was scrapped “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the flight and pad crew,” adding that the team needs “additional time to complete a full assessment.”

The analysis will include whether the pressure regulation valve, located on the rocket’s upper stage, needs to be replaced, which may cause a longer delay.

The crewed Starliner flight, when it occurs, will be a crucial final test before NASA can authorize Boeing to conduct routine flights to and from the space station.

Officials at NASA and Boeing have said safety is paramount for the spacecraft’s first flight with humans onboard.

The scrubbed launch is yet another setback for Boeing, which has already dealt with years of delays and budget overruns with its Starliner program. It has fallen significantly behind SpaceX, which has been flying crewed missions to and from the space station for NASA since 2020.

Both SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing’s Starliner craft were developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The initiative began more than a decade ago, following the retirement of the agency’s space shuttles, to support private companies in building new space vehicles to take astronauts to low-Earth orbit.

Starliner’s first uncrewed flight in 2019 was thwarted by software issues, forcing mission controllers to cut the test short before the vehicle could attempt to rendezvous and dock with the ISS. A second attempt was then delayed several times by fuel valve issues, and it wasn’t until 2022 that Boeing was able to carry out a successful uncrewed flight to and from the space station .

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

Key rocket launch set for Monday: What to know about the Boeing Starliner carrying 2 astronauts

Nasa will air live coverage of the monday night launch from florida as two astronauts attempt to reach the international space station aboard a boeing rocket..

Editor's note: The launch was scrubbed Monday. Here is the latest info on the mission .

Boeing  will have to wait to head to space as a  planned Monday evening launch  to send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Starliner space capsule was called off due to a "faulty oxygen relief valve observation," according to NASA.

The CST-100 Starliner test mission scheduled for Monday night was years in the making and serves as a final demonstration before the spacecraft can be approved for routine trips to orbit. The stakes were high for the third and final orbital flight test for Starliner, as it would have been the first with a crew on board.

Just like Elon Musk's SpaceX capsule, Starliner is intended to be a vehicle that can ferry astronauts to and from the space station as NASA pivots to more partnerships with private industry. But Boeing has largely lagged behind its competitor, which launched its first crewed mission in 2020, according to Reuters .

Here's what to know about Monday's scheduled launched and how to watch it live.

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What to know about the Boeing Starliner, crew

The Starliner was designed to accommodate no more than seven passengers for missions to low-Earth orbit. For NASA, the capsule is intended to carry four astronauts along with a mix of cargo and other scientific instruments to and from the ISS.

The two NASA astronauts flying the commercial crew mission are  Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams . Both are Navy test pilots who have flown in space twice, according to Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network.

• Williams , 58, is a former Naval test pilot with experience flying over 30 different aircraft. Selected as an astronaut in 1998, she has has logged 322 days in space over two missions since her first flight in 2007.
• Wilmore , 61, is a retired Navy captain who completed 21 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm before joining NASA in 200. Since then, he has logged 178 days in space after his first trip to orbit in 2009.

The astronauts will be in space for a little more than a week testing the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems. After the mission, the pair will board the Starliner for a return trip to Earth and a parachute and airbag landing in the American Southwest.

“ The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft  is an absolutely critical milestone," NASA Associate Administrator James Free told reporters during a recent flight readiness review, according to Florida Today . "The lives of our crew members, Butch Wilmore and  Suni Williams , are at stake. We don’t take that lightly at all.”

How to watch the Boeing Starliner launch

Boeing and NASA are targeting 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday for Starliner's launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The capsule will fly to space on top of an Atlas V rocket.

NASA will provide live coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on  N ASA+ , NASA Television, the  NASA app , the agency's YouTube page and its  website . A postlaunch news conference is also planned.

Watch here:

Expect more coverage when the Starliner is expected to dock to the forward-facing port of the International Space Station's Harmony module at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday.

What went wrong on past Boeing tests

Dozens of software and engineering issues resulted in the failure of a previous attempt in 2019 to send an uncrewed Starliner to the ISS for a week.

While it reached orbit, the capsule failed to reach the space station and instead returned to Earth, according to Florida Today . That mission raised questions and doubts about NASA's future with Boeing, which is scheduled to fly six crewed astronaut missions once it's certified as safe for flight, Reuters reported.

The follow up flight test in 2022 met standards of docking to the space station and successfully landed, but not without the discovery of multiple issues as Boeing crews inspected the spacecraft later on, Florida Today reported.

Engineers have expressed a high level of confidence about the upcoming launch, the outlet reported.

"Our process in human spaceflight is very robust. We design around redundancy," Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing's Starliner program, said during a March NASA news conference. "We test, test, and test."

NASA paid Boeing, SpaceX to develop spacecraft

Boeing was selected along with SpaceX to provide spacecrafts that would transport astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit for NASA.

Boeing's contract with the U.S. space agency awarded in 2014 was good for $4.8 billion, while SpaceX received $3.1 billion, according to Florida Today.

The partnership is part of NASA’s commercial crew program  in which the space agency is  paying private companies to build spacecraft capable of ferrying trained astronauts to the space station for scientific missions. Under NASA's more ambitious Artemis lunar program, it's also paid SpaceX $2.9 billion to develop the first commercial human lander for the moon and eventually Mars.

In March, SpaceX had its most successful test yet of the Starship rocket needed for NASA's Artemis missions. While in orbit, the Starship hit several key milestones and conducted a handful of in-flight tests that are a crucial step forward for it to be reliable and functional .

SpaceX, whose Dragon spacecraft flew its first human mission in 2020, recently saw its Crew-7 return to Earth after nearly 200 days aboard the International Space Station. The eighth crew comprised of three NASA astronauts and one cosmonaut  launched March 3  and docked March 5 to await the arrival of Boeing's Starliner capsule.

If the mission is a success, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station, according to NASA .

Contributing: Brooke Edwards , Florida Today

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

New NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the Brink

Ever wonder what happens when you fall into a black hole? Now, thanks to a new, immersive visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer, viewers can plunge into the event horizon, a black hole’s point of no return.

“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”

The visualizations are available in multiple forms. Explainer videos act as sightseeing guides, illuminating the bizarre effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Versions rendered as 360-degree videos let viewers look all around during the trip, while others play as flat all-sky maps.

To create the visualizations, Schnittman teamed up with fellow Goddard scientist Brian Powell and used the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation . The project generated about 10 terabytes of data — equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress — and took about 5 days running on just 0.3% of Discover’s 129,000 processors. The same feat would take more than a decade on a typical laptop.

The destination is a supermassive black hole with 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, equivalent to the monster located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

“If you have the choice, you want to fall into a supermassive black hole,” Schnittman explained. “Stellar-mass black holes, which contain up to about 30 solar masses,  possess much smaller event horizons and stronger tidal forces, which can rip apart approaching objects before they get to the horizon.”

This occurs because the gravitational pull on the end of an object nearer the black hole is much stronger than that on the other end. Infalling objects stretch out like noodles, a process astrophysicists call spaghettification .

The simulated black hole’s event horizon spans about 16 million miles (25 million kilometers), or about 17% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds it and serves as a visual reference during the fall. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky as seen from Earth completes the scene.

As the camera approaches the black hole, reaching speeds ever closer to that of light itself, the glow from the accretion disk and background stars becomes amplified in much the same way as the sound of an oncoming racecar rises in pitch. Their light appears brighter and whiter when looking into the direction of travel.

The movies begin with the camera located nearly 400 million miles (640 million kilometers) away, with the black hole quickly filling the view. Along the way, the black hole’s disk, photon rings, and the night sky become increasingly distorted — and even form multiple images as their light traverses the increasingly warped space-time.

In real time, the camera takes about 3 hours to fall to the event horizon, executing almost two complete 30-minute orbits along the way. But to anyone observing from afar, it would never quite get there. As space-time becomes ever more distorted closer to the horizon, the image of the camera would slow and then seem to freeze just shy of it. This is why astronomers originally referred to black holes as “frozen stars.”

At the event horizon, even space-time itself flows inward at the speed of light, the cosmic speed limit. Once inside it, both the camera and the space-time in which it's moving rush toward the black hole's center — a one-dimensional point called a singularity , where the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate.

“Once the camera crosses the horizon, its destruction by spaghettification is just 12.8 seconds away,” Schnittman said. From there, it’s only 79,500 miles (128,000 kilometers) to the singularity. This final leg of the voyage is over in the blink of an eye.

In the alternative scenario, the camera orbits close to the event horizon but it never crosses over and escapes to safety. If an astronaut flew a spacecraft on this 6-hour round trip while her colleagues on a mothership remained far from the black hole, she’d return 36 minutes younger than her colleagues. That’s because time passes more slowly near a strong gravitational source and when moving near the speed of light.

“This situation can be even more extreme,” Schnittman noted. “If the black hole were rapidly rotating, like the one shown in the 2014 movie ‘Interstellar,’ she would return many years younger than her shipmates.”

By Francis Reddy NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, Md. Media Contact: Claire Andreoli 301-286-1940 [email protected] NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Related Terms

• Astrophysics
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20 Years Ago: NASA Selects its 19th Group of Astronauts

Johnson space center.

On May 6, 2004, NASA announced the selection of its 19th group of astronauts. The group comprised 11 candidates – two pilots, six mission specialists, and three educator mission specialists – and included two women, two Hispanic Americans, and one African American. Three astronauts from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) joined the 11 NASA astronauts for the 20-month training program to qualify as mission specialists, following which they became eligible for flight assignments. They comprised the last group of astronauts selected to fly on the space shuttle. All members of the group completed at least one spaceflight, with five making a single trip into space, four making two trips, and five going three times. Several remain on active status and available for future flight assignments.

In a ceremony held at the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, NASA Administrator Sean C. O’Keefe and Chief of the Astronaut Office Kent V. Rominger introduced the 11 new astronaut candidates, the first selected since the Columbia accident . John H. Glenn , representing the original Mercury 7 astronauts selected in 1959, also attended the ceremony. The newest class of astronaut candidates included Randolph J. Bresnik and James P. Dutton as the two pilot candidates; Christopher J. Cassidy , José M. Hernández , R. Shane Kimbrough , Thomas H. Marshburn , Robert “Bobby” L. Satcher , and Shannon Walker as the mission specialists; and Joseph M. Acaba , Richard R. Arnold , and Dorothy “Dottie” M. Metcalf-Lindenburger as the educator astronauts. Under a joint agreement between the two agencies, JAXA astronauts Satoshi Furukawa , Akihiko “Aki” Hoshide , and Naoko Yamazaki , selected in 1999, joined the 11 NASA astronauts for the 20-month certification program.

The 11 NASA and three JAXA astronaut candidates began their 18-month training and certification period in June 2004. The training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. They also received orientation tours at all NASA centers. They completed the astronaut candidate training in February 2006 and qualified for various technical assignments within the astronaut office and for future flight assignments.

Per tradition, the previous astronaut class provided the nickname for Group 19: The Peacocks. The Group 19 astronauts designed their patch, that included elements such as the American and Japanese flags, a stylized astronaut pin, fourteen stars representing the astronauts, a book – representing knowledge and learning – with a Roman numeral XIX on it, and the Earth, Moon, and Mars, representing current and future exploration. The border of the patch contained the Latin words Explorandi Concitandi Docendi Gratia, meaning “for the sake of exploring, inspiring, and teaching.”

Acaba, one of the three educator astronauts, hails from California. He received his first spaceflight assignment as a mission specialist on STS-119, the 2009 mission that brought the final truss segment to the space station. He conducted two spacewalks, one of them with fellow Peacock Arnold. Acaba then traveled to the station for his second mission, this time on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, to serve as a flight engineer during Expedition 31 and 32 in 2012, during which the crew welcomed the first commercial cargo vehicle, a SpaceX Dragon. He completed his third mission as a flight engineer during Expedition 53 and 54 in 2012 to 2013, performing a single spacewalk. Acaba spent a total of 306 days in space and 19 hours and 46 minutes outside during three spacewalks. He has served as the Chief of the Astronaut Office since 2023.

The second of the three educator astronauts, Arnold, a resident of Maryland, flew with Acaba on STS-119 in 2009. He conducted two spacewalks, one of them with fellow Peacock Acaba. His second flight took place nine years later when he served as a flight engineer during Expedition 55 and 56 and performed three more spacewalks. He has logged 209 days in space and accumulated 32 hours and 4 minutes of spacewalk time during five excursions.

Bresnik, a U.S. Marine test pilot from California, received his first spaceflight assignment as a mission specialist on STS-129, a utilization and logistics flight that brought two External Logistics Carriers to the space station. He conducted two spacewalks during the 11-day flight, including one with fellow Peacock Satcher. During his second spaceflight in 2017, Bresnik flew to the station on a Soyuz, spending 139 days in space, first as a flight engineer during Expedition 52 and then as commander of Expedition 53, and conducted three more spacewalks. He logged a total of 149 days in space, and 32 hours outside during five spacewalks. Since 2018, Bresnik has served as assistant to the chief of the astronaut office for exploration.

A native of Maine and a U.S. Navy SEAL, Cassidy completed three spaceflights during his NASA career. On his first flight in 2009, he flew as a mission specialist on STS-127, the flight that delivered the Japanese Kibo Exposed Facility to the station. He performed three spacewalks during the 16-day mission, two of them with fellow Peacock Marshburn. He returned to the space station in 2013 via a Soyuz and served as a flight engineer during Expeditions 35 and 36, spending 166 days in space and conducting three spacewalks including one terminated early when fellow spacewalker Luca Parmitano ’s helmet began filling with water. On his third mission in 2020, Cassidy served as flight engineer during Expedition 62 and commanded Expedition 63. He conducted four more spacewalks. He spent a total of 378 days in space and 54 hours 51 minutes outside on nine spacewalks.

A native of Oregon and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Dutton flew as pilot on STS-131, a resupply mission to the space station in 2010. Fellow Peacocks Metcalf-Lindenburger and Yamazaki accompanied Dutton on the flight. The Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) brought 27,000 pounds of supplies to the station, and returned 6,000 pounds of science, hardware, and trash back to the ground. Dutton logged 15 days in space.

California native Hernández joined the Materials and Processes Branch at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston prior to his selection as an astronaut. He made his one spaceflight on STS-128 in 2009, an expedition crew member rotation flight that also delivered 18,000 pounds of supplies, cargo, and science to the space station inside an MPLM. He logged 14 days in space. The 2023 motion picture “A Million Miles Away” chronicled Hernández’s journey to become an astronaut.

Texas native and U.S. Army aviator Kimbrough joined JSC in 2000 at Ellington Field’s Aircraft Operations Division before joining the astronaut corps. The first NASA astronaut from Group 19 to get a flight assignment, Kimbrough flew as a mission specialist on STS-126 in 2008. During the 16-day mission, the astronauts carried out an expedition crew member rotation and resupplied the station with 14,000 pounds of supplies including facilities to enable six-person occupancy of the station. Kimbrough completed two spacewalks during STS-126. For his second spaceflight, Kimbrough launched on a Soyuz and flew as a flight engineer on Expedition 49, becoming commander of Expedition 50 a week later. During the 173-day mission in 2016-2017, he conducted four spacewalks. For his third flight, Kimbrough served as the commander of Crew-2 and as flight engineer during Expedition 65/66 in 2021, flying with fellow Peacock Hoshide. During the 199-day mission he conducted three more spacewalks, bringing his total to nine and more than 59 hours outside the station. During his three spaceflights, he accumulated 388 days in space.

A native of North Carolina, Marshburn served as a flight surgeon at JSC before his selection as an astronaut, supporting Shuttle/Mir, space shuttle, and space station crews. On his first spaceflight, the 16-day STS-127 in 2009, he served as a mission specialist to help deliver the Japanese Kibo Exposed Facility and performed three spacewalks, two of them with fellow Peacock Cassidy. On his second spaceflight, Marshburn launched on a Soyuz and served as flight engineer on Expedition 34/35 in 2012 and 2013. During the 145-day mission, he completed one spacewalk. On his third mission, he served as Crew-3 pilot and flight engineer on the 176-day Expedition 66/67, completing one more spacewalk to bring his total to five, spending 31 hours outside the station. On his three flights, Marshburn spent 377 days in space.

The third educator astronaut, Denver native Metcalf-Lindenburger made her one spaceflight as a mission specialist on STS-131, flying with fellow Peacocks Dutton and Yamazaki. During the 15-day mission in 2010, the astronauts resupplied the station, including bringing 27,000 pounds of supplies in the MPLM and returning 6,000 pounds of hardware and science back to Earth.

A native of Virginia, Satcher worked as an orthopedic surgeon before his selection as an astronaut. He made his one spaceflight as a mission specialist on STS-129, an 11-day flight in 2009. During the utilization and logistics flight that brought two External Logistics Carriers to the station, Satcher performed two spacewalks, including one with fellow Peacock Bresnik, totaling 12 hours 19 minutes.

Walker holds the honor as the first native Houstonian selected as an astronaut. She worked for many years in flight operations at JSC prior to her selection. On her first spaceflight in 2010, Walker launched on a Soyuz and served as a flight engineer on the 163-day Expedition 24/25. For her second flight, she served as a mission specialist on Crew-1, the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, and as a flight engineer during Expedition 64 and commander of Expedition 65 in 2020 and 2021. Including that 167-day flight, Walker has logged 330 days in space. She currently serves as the deputy chief of the astronaut office.

Born in Yokohama, Furukawa earned a medical degree and worked as a researcher in gastrointestinal surgery before JAXA selected him as an astronaut in 1999. He joined Group 19 in June 2004 to certify as a mission specialist. For his first spaceflight, Furukawa launched on a Soyuz and served as a flight engineer during Expedition 28/29, a 167-day mission in 2011. In 2023-24, he flew as a mission specialist on Crew 7 and as a flight engineer on Expedition 69/70, spending 199 days in space. Furukawa has accumulated 366 days in orbit and remains on active status.

Hoshide, born in Tokyo, joined JAXA in 1992 and seven years later the agency selected him as an astronaut. After finishing his mission specialist certification in 2006, JAXA chose him to fly on STS-124, the flight that delivered the Kibo pressurized module to the space station in 2008. Four years later, Hoshide traveled to the space station a second time to serve as a flight engineer during Expedition 32/33. He performed three spacewalks totaling 28 hours and 17 minutes. In 2021, he returned to the station as a member of Crew-2, flying with fellow Peacock Kimbrough. He served as a flight engineer during Expedition 65 and commander of Expedition 66, spending an additional 198 days in space. Hoshide accumulated 340 days in orbit and remains on active status.

An engineer born in Chiba, Yamazaki joined JAXA in 1996, three years before the agency selected her as an astronaut. She completed her mission specialist certification in 2006 and in 2010, made her one spaceflight on STS 131, flying with fellow Peacocks Dutton and Metcalf-Lindenburger. During the 15-day mission, the astronauts transferred 27,000 pounds of supplies to the station from the MPLM and returned 6,000 pounds back to Earth. Yamazaki operated both the shuttle and station remote manipulator systems during the flight. The STS-131 mission took place while fellow JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi served as an Expedition 23 flight engineer, marking the first time two Japanese astronauts flew in space at the same time.

The Group 19 NASA and JAXA astronauts have made and continue to make significant contributions to the space station – assembly, research, maintenance, logistics, management – traveling to space and back using three different spacecraft – space shuttle, Soyuz, and Crew Dragon. Kimbrough, Marshburn, and Hoshide flew all three during their careers. As a group, they completed 28 flights spending 2,913 days, or nearly eight years, in space. They comprised the last group selected to fly on the space shuttle before its retirement in 2011. Eight of the 14 performed 43 spacewalks spending 275 hours and 46 minutes, or more than 11 days, outside the spacecraft. With several of the astronauts still on active duty, the story of Group 19 remains unfinished.

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