On the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing, there’s some good news on space travel: the ionising radiation encountered doesn’t appear to put astronauts at increased risk of dying from cancer or cardiovascular disease in later life.

The finding comes from analysis of the health records of more than 400 US and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts who had flown at least one mission since 1959.

Writing in Nature Scientific Reports, the authors say space travellers are exposed to unique forms of ionising radiation that pose potentially serious health hazards, including cancer and CVD. 

Previous analyses have tried to quantify excess mortality risk for astronauts exposed to space radiation, but the studies have been affected by low statistical power, they write.