Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship readied for station departure

NASA has selected six companies to work on designs for deep space habitat modules that could be used by astronauts living and working near the moon as technology is developed for eventual flights to Mars, the agency announced Tuesday.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts suited up and ventured outside the International Space Station on Sunday on their third spacewalk in eight days to install equipment to help future commercial crew capsules built by Boeing and SpaceX navigate to the complex.

Two cosmonauts living aboard the International Space Station plugged a small hole in the hull of a Soyuz ferry craft with a wipe and sealant Thursday, stabilizing the air pressure inside the orbiting research outpost after engineers detected a minor leak.