diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/astropy/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/astropy/default.nix
index 04d53181cc28c55..8ee70bf640442e0 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/astropy/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/astropy/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 { lib
 , fetchPypi
+, fetchpatch
 , buildPythonPackage
 , pythonOlder
 
@@ -10,6 +11,11 @@
 , oldest-supported-numpy
 , setuptools-scm
 , wheel
+# testing
+, pytestCheckHook
+, pytest-xdist
+, pytest-astropy
+, python
 
 # runtime
 , numpy
@@ -18,12 +24,9 @@
 , pyyaml
 }:
 
-let
+buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "astropy";
   version = "5.3.3";
-in
-buildPythonPackage {
-  inherit pname version;
   format = "pyproject";
 
   disabled = pythonOlder "3.8"; # according to setup.cfg
@@ -32,7 +35,19 @@ buildPythonPackage {
     inherit pname version;
     hash = "sha256-AzDfn116IlQ2fpuM9EJVuhBwsGEjGIxqcu3BgEk/k7s=";
   };
+  patches = [
+    # Fixes running tests in parallel issue
+    # https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/15316. Fix from
+    # https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/15327
+    (fetchpatch {
+      url = "https://github.com/astropy/astropy/commit/1042c0fb06a992f683bdc1eea2beda0b846ed356.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-bApAcGBRrJ94thhByoYvdqw2e6v77+FmTfgmGcE6MMk=";
+    })
+  ];
 
+  # Relax cython dependency to allow this to build, upstream only doesn't
+  # support cython 3 as of writing. See:
+  # https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/15315
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace pyproject.toml \
       --replace 'cython==' 'cython>='
@@ -54,14 +69,28 @@ buildPythonPackage {
     pyyaml
   ];
 
-  # infinite recursion with pytest-astropy (pytest-astropy-header depends on astropy itself)
-  doCheck = false;
+  nativeCheckInputs = [
+    pytestCheckHook
+    pytest-xdist
+    pytest-astropy
+  ];
+
+  # Not running it inside the build directory. See:
+  # https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/15316#issuecomment-1722190547
+  preCheck = ''
+    cd "$out"
+    export HOME="$(mktemp -d)"
+    export OMP_NUM_THREADS=$(( $NIX_BUILD_CORES / 4 ))
+  '';
+  pythonImportsCheck = [
+    "astropy"
+  ];
 
-  meta = with lib; {
+  meta = {
     description = "Astronomy/Astrophysics library for Python";
     homepage = "https://www.astropy.org";
-    license = licenses.bsd3;
-    platforms = platforms.all;
-    maintainers = [ maintainers.kentjames ];
+    license = lib.licenses.bsd3;
+    platforms = lib.platforms.all;
+    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ kentjames doronbehar ];
   };
 }