Space Station

Russia shot down an old Soviet-era military spacecraft Monday in a test of an anti-satellite weapon, scattering hundreds of thousands of debris fragments that will remain in orbit for years or decades, U.S. government officials said. The crew on the International Space Station sheltered in their lifeboats Monday as the complex flew through the debris field.

The seven astronauts and cosmonauts living on the International Space Station took refuge Monday morning inside their Dragon and Soyuz ferry ships after a space debris field threatened to pass near the outpost.

The day after a sky-lighting Florida launch, four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule chased down the International Space Station Thursday and glided in for a problem-free docking, kicking off a half-year stay aboard the orbital outpost.

Two NASA astronauts and mission specialists from Japan and France closed out a 199-day flight Monday on a SpaceX crew capsule, departing the International Space Station and riding their Dragon spacecraft through a scorching re-entry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

Four astronauts closing out an expedition of nearly 200 days in orbit floated into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at the International Space Station Monday, a couple of hours before the ship was scheduled to undock and fly a 360-degree loop around the complex on the way back to Earth.

Four astronauts departed the International Space Station Monday after nearly 200 days in orbit, heading for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. The capsule undocked from the station at 2:05 p.m. EST (1905 GMT), and splashed down off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, at 10:33 p.m. EST (0333 GMT).