Andrea Leinfelder

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth Wednesday after a record-setting 371 days in space.

A seven-year, 3.9-billion-mile journey ended Sunday when NASA landed a time capsule in the Utah desert. This capsule contained rocks and dust snatched from asteroid Bennu, a floating pile of rubble formed by remnants of the early solar system. Scientists believe the OSIRIS-REx mission collected half a pound of material, which makes it the largest asteroid sample ever brought back to Earth and the first through a U.S. mission.

NASA is looking for a spacecraft that will crash the International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean when it retires, which is currently scheduled for 2030. Here's an interesting tidbit ... the ISS partners had considered using Russia's Progress spacecraft, but they have now decided "a new spacecraft solution would provide more robust capabilities for responsible deorbit."

NASA released a stunning new image from the moon's South Pole, an area the agency plans to explore with robotic and human explorers.

Kelly Haston discussed life on "Mars" nine weeks into a yearlong mission where Haston and three others are pretending to be on the Red Planet. "It is comfortable and spacious, and I do not yet miss being outside," Haston said.

Loral O’Hara, the second Houston native to be selected as a NASA astronaut, launched into space on Friday. There have been 360 people selected to become NASA astronauts since the original Mercury Seven in 1959. These astronauts live and work in the Houston area, yet O’Hara and Shannon Walker are the only two born in Space City.

UPDATE: NASA decided to name its new director of UAP research. It has tapped Mark McInerney for the job. McInerney previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Department of Defense covering limited UAP activities for the agency. FROM EARLIER: NASA has appointed a director to lead the agency’s research of unidentified anomalous phenomena – the new term for unidentified flying objects, or UFOs – but is not naming this person to protect them from harassment and threats. It’s the agency’s first concrete step toward collecting better data that could determine if mysterious objects are balloons, planes, weather phenomena or extraterrestrial. It’s also an indication of the challenges NASA will face as it moves this conversation from sensational to scientific.

Last year, NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service flew nearly 2,000 seeds around the moon on the uncrewed Artemis I mission. The seeds are being germinated, and NASA wants to plant them at schools, libraries, museums, arboretums and other places that encourage STEM education and conservation. It's a way to inspire the Artemis generation while continuing a legacy that started with NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa, who flew tree seeds on Apollo 14.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio now holds the record for longest single spaceflight by an American, and he's just days away from becoming the first NASA astronaut to spend a full calendar year circling the Earth.

The Federal Aviation Administration has closed the investigation into what went wrong April 20 when SpaceX launched — and then detonated — the world's most powerful rocket from South Texas. But that doesn't mean a second flight test is imminent.