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President Trump calls International Space Station
President Trump called the International Space Station Monday for a videochat watched by thousands of school kids, congratulating commander Peggy Whitson on becoming America's most experienced astronaut and jokingly promising to get Americans to Mars "during my first term or, at worst, during my second term."

Two fresh crew members join space station expedition
Veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and rookie flight engineer Jack Fischer streaked into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft Thursday, chased down the International Space Station and glided to a smooth docking to complete a six-hour rendezvous.

Soyuz crew set for Thursday launch to space station
Just 10 days after three space station fliers returned to Earth -- and two days after launch of a station-bound supply ship -- a veteran four-flight cosmonaut and an enthusiastic NASA rookie were cleared for launch Thursday to boost the lab's crew up to five -- one less than usual because of cost cutting by the Russian space agency.

Soyuz makes pinpoint landing in Kazakhstan with crew of three
Astronaut Shane Kimbrough and his two Russian crewmates — Soyuz MS-02 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Andrey Borisenko — undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Monday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an extended 173-day mission.

Whitson’s station expedition extended three months
NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, have agreed to extend astronaut Peggy Whitson's stay aboard the International Space Station by three months to enable uninterrupted research aboard the orbital laboratory during a period when Russia is temporarily reducing its crew complement, the U.S. space agency said Wednesday.

Spacewalkers improvise after fabric shield floats away
Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson, setting a new record as the world's most experienced female spacewalker, floated outside the International Space Station Thursday and continued work to set up a second docking port for U.S. crew ferry ships. They also installed an upgraded computer relay box and protective shielding before calling it a day.

Astronauts gear up for spacewalks, resupply launch delayed
NASA is gearing up for an intense few weeks of work aboard the International Space Station, staging three spacewalks, moving a docking port from one module to another to support commercial crew ferry ships and capturing an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship carrying nearly 4 tons of equipment and supplies.

Trump budget blueprint focuses on deep space exploration, commercial partnerships
The Trump administration is proposing $19.1 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017 funding levels, focusing on deep space exploration, both human and robotic, and increased public-private partnerships to lower costs and encourage private sector innovation.

NASA studying whether to add astronauts to first launch of new super booster
NASA managers said Friday they hope to know within a month or so whether it might be feasible -- or advisable -- to put two astronauts on board the first test flight of a huge 322-foot-tall Space Launch System super booster scheduled for its maiden launch late next year.

Star found with record seven Earth-size planets
Astronomers have discovered seven roughly Earth-size planets very close to a cool dwarf star some 39 light years from Earth, including three orbiting in the star's habitable zone where liquid water, a key ingredient for life as it's known on Earth, could be present, researchers announced Wednesday.