Boeing’s first foray into manned space flight has been an unmitigated cock up. Starliner launched to the International Space Station with two astronauts onboard in June and landed back on Earth two months later without them after issues were uncovered with the craft. Now, more problems have surfaced during Starliner’s… Read more… Read original article … Read more
A crew of four private astronauts ascended into space early Tuesday on a risky SpaceX mission to attempt the first-ever private spacewalk using the company’s new spacesuits and a redesigned spacecraft. A billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees were launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard … Read more
Ninety-three days after launching aboard, Boeing’s Starliner capsule is prepared to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday evening leaving Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the two astronauts who have been on the ISS since June, to remain on the station as the capsule departs.The hatch of the Starliner was closed, and the … Read more
It’s been a long time coming, but Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is finally returning to Earth — but without its two astronauts. The capsule is scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, leaving behind test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and land at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico early Saturday morning. … Read more
The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during a recent Starlink mission remains open, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday. SpaceX made the return to flight request for the workhorse vehicle on Thursday and the FAA gave approval on Friday. The agency … Read more
ESA’s European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cluster mission‘s satellite Salsa, which was launched in 2000, is ending its mission after 24 years of studying Earth’s magnetic field and is all set for a dramatic return to Earth on September 8, 2024.The mission was initially expected to last two years but continued for 24 years. Salsa is … Read more
The launch of SpaceX’s four-person Polaris Dawn mission will be delayed by at least a day because of a helium leak in ground equipment at Kennedy Space Center, the company said on Tuesday, hours before the scheduled liftoff of its Crew Dragon capsule. The highlight of the mission is expected to come two days after … Read more
Two NASA astronauts who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule will need to return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA said on Saturday, deeming issues with Starliner’s propulsion system too risky to carry its first crew home. The agency’s decision, tapping Boeing’s top space … Read more
Last Thursday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Vandenberg Space Launch Complex in California with a payload of 20 Starlink satellites. And like the preceding 325 times before, the launch seemed to go off without a hitch: the rocket reached space and the first stage returned, landing on a drone ship in the … Read more
In a pre-print paper published on arXiv on June 12, researchers reported that during the intense four-day solar storm in May, satellites and space debris in low Earth orbit experienced a significant drop in altitude, sinking towards Earth at a rate of 590 feet (180 meters) per day. This sudden change in altitude forced thousands … Read more
