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Axiom Mission 2 crew members return to Earth, discussing unidentified anomalous phenomena, and a water plume off of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

America’s first space station and the first crewed research laboratory in space, Skylab, lifted off on May 14, 1973. Skylab helped pave the way for permanent operations in low-Earth orbit. Over the course of its human occupation from May 25, 1973, to Feb. 8, 1974, three crews visited Skylab, carrying out 270 scientific and technical investigations in astronauts’ physiological responses to long-duration space flight, Earth sciences, solar physics, and astronomy.

The second all-private astronaut mission to the space station, completing the set of tiny severe weather trackers, and a robotic explorer – with a twist … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

The 28th SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (CRS-28) is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this June. The scientific experiments and technology demonstrations carried by the Dragon spacecraft include studies of how plants adapt to stress, measurements of genetic structures called telomeres, and satellite projects designed by students in Canada.

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón wrote an original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, which is believed to harbor a vast ocean beneath its icy surface. Narrated by Limón herself, the poem is entitled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” and it connects two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored. The poem will be engraved on a plaque carried aboard the Europa Clipper spacecraft.

Paul Smith is a night-sky fanatic and photographer. His obsession is sprites: immense jolts of light that flicker high above thunderstorms. Last October, he guided NASA scientist Dr. Burcu Kosar through the backroads of Oklahoma to catch one herself. Although she’d studied sprites for more than 15 years, she hadn’t yet chased one.

A new Earth science mission, led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), will help communities plan for a better future by surveying the planet’s salt and freshwater bodies. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will measure the height of water in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and oceans.

On March 8, 2019, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station, after nearly 5 days aboard the orbiting laboratory during the company’s Demo-1 mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and descends to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Just over 5 hours later, the uncrewed spacecraft splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida and is recovered by SpaceX teams.

This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.