ISS scientists make headway in cancer research: 'We're NASA, we do Moonshots'

A view of the international space station, with earth seen below.

"Why do we go to space?" asked NASA administrator Bill Nelson to a small crowd at NASA headquarters last week. "We go to explore the heavens, but we also go to improve life here on Earth, and that includes attacking this dreaded disease that we know is cancer."

Nelson was speaking at an event held in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to give an update on progress that the respective agencies are making toward the White House's Cancer Moonshot initiative, originally launched in 2016.