Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls The Boeing Starliner’s hatch is closed, and the months-long debacle in low Earth orbit is nearly over. NASA confirmed that the troubled spacecraft will undock from the International Space Station at 6:04 p.m. EDT on Friday. From there, the Starliner will begin an autonomous re-entry with a scheduled landing at White Sands … Read more
Photo: NASA With NASA announcing that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth next March on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, the focus quickly shifted to what will happen to the beleaguered Boeing Starliner. The space agency plans to autonomously undock the craft from the International Space Station but fears the Starliner could drift … Read more
Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / Contributor (Getty Images) A SpaceX rocket booster crashed as it was landing Wednesday, causing the aerospace company to postpone a launch it had planned later in the day. The Federal Aviation Administration has since grounded all Falcon 9 rockets until an investigation into the crash is completed, Futurism reports. That throws … Read more
Photo: MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO / Contributor (Getty Images) This has not been the best year for Boeing. Bad news keeps coming out on its planes, and its multi-billion-dollar spaceship has been stuck in limbo, with NASA trying to decide whether it can be used to bring two stranded astronauts back to Earth. Now, after … Read more
Photo: Polaris Program/John Kraus SpaceX, somehow not the worst American space company, has long had big plans for its missions. From spacewalks to killing the International Space Station, the company always seems interested in unprecedented stunts. Now, SpaceX is rolling that spacewalk plan in with another: Sending tourists 870 miles from Earth, with no airlock. … Read more
Photo: NASA An interesting dilemma has cropped up as NASA weighs its options on handling the problem-plagued Boeing Starliner currently docked to the International Space Station. If astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were to hitch a ride back to Earth on a Space-X Crew Dragon, they would need new spacesuits. Boeing’s intravehicular activity suits … Read more
A chunk of Mir is probably sitting perfectly preserved on the Pacific Ocean floorPhoto: NASA The final point of many space missions is an extremely isolated spot in the South Pacific Ocean, where spacecraft are splashed down and never seen again. Much of the focus on the upcoming SpaceX Crew-9 mission has been on a … Read more
Two astronauts are currently stuck on board the International Space Station more than 50 days after they were initially scheduled to fly back to Earth. Now, issues with the Boeing Starliner craft they used to reach the ISS mean that Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams may now be stranded in space until the new … Read more
Photo: NASA / Frank Michaux NASA is contemplating bringing astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams home from the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon and flying the Boeing Starliner back empty. There’s just one problem: Boeing removed the Starliner’s autonomous undocking feature from its software. The aerospace manufacturer wants to push a software … Read more
Photo: Joel Kowsky/NASA (Getty Images) Despite the development delays and a drastically elongated mission, NASA stated on Wednesday that it’s aiming to return the Boeing Starliner from the International Space Station by the end of July. The space agency also stated the spacecraft could evacuate to Earth right now should an emergency arise. Like the … Read more
