Tag: Boeing
-
Boeing bounces back with successful test of Starliner space taxi’s propulsion system
Starliner’s test service module ignites its launch abort engines and orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters in a low-altitude abort mode test. (Boeing Photo) Boeing has successfully run the propulsion system for its CST-100 Starliner space taxi through the same test it failed almost a year ago, marking a significant step toward carrying astronauts to…
-
Commercial crew capsules still beset by parachute problems
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated May 10 with NASA statement. SpaceX performs a parachute test for their Dragon capsule over the Delamar Dry Lake in this file photo from 2016. Credit: SpaceX A malfunction during a drop test over Nevada last month for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon program has engineers re-examining the crew capsule’s parachutes, and Boeing has also…
-
NASA begins outlining roadmap for 2024 moon landing
Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA’s human spaceflight programs, speaks April 8 during a meeting at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani A senior NASA official said Tuesday that the Space Launch System, a huge heavy-lift rocket years behind schedule, could launch astronauts on a moon landing mission in 2024 on just its…
-
DoD practices Starliner at sea recovery for first time
In a critical first for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule, the crew transportation vehicle is putting DoD and Air Force rescue teams through their paces as they seek to understand and refine what will be needed to rescue a Starliner crew from the capsule should an off-nominal landing in the water occur. Starliner at sea rescue…
-
Intelsat declares drifting satellite total loss
Workers mount the Intelsat 29e communications satellite atop an Ariane 5 launcher in French Guiana on Jan. 18, 2016, in preparation for its launch later that month. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon Intelsat has declared the Intelsat 29e communications satellite a total loss after the Boeing-built spacecraft suffered a…
-
Stricken with fuel leak, Intelsat 29e seen drifting in geostationary orbit
A Boeing-built Intelsat communications satellite launched three years ago is drifting in geostationary orbit after suffering a fuel leak and releasing debris fragments last week, according to an analysis by space surveillance experts. Ground-based telescopes operated by ExoAnalytic Solutions, a commercial company that tracks objects in space with a network of optical telescopes, show…
-
Uncrewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner space taxi delayed; crewed flight to be extended
Technicians at the Boeing Space Environment Test Facility in El Segundo, Calif., position a Starliner spaceship inside an acoustic test chamber. (Boeing Photo) NASA today confirmed that the first uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner space taxi to the International Space Station would be delayed until at least August, and also said the first crewed…
-
Boeing delays first Starliner test flight to August, NASA extends duration of first crew mission
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated April 3 with NASA’s confirmation of an extension to the duration of the Crew Flight Test and SpaceX statement on Crew Dragon schedule. This image shows one of three Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew capsules during an environmental test campaign in El Segundo, California, that exposed the spacecraft to the thermal, acoustic and electromagnetic…
-
Pence calls for NASA to land astronauts on the moon within five years
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 2017. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that NASA should land astronauts near the south pole of the moon within five years “by any means necessary,” calling for “new urgency” in the U.S. space program and sounding a warning for entrenched…
-
Photos: Delta 4 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral
A hydrogen-fueled main engine and four solid rocket boosters combined to propel a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on March 15, successfully sending a U.S. Air Force communications satellite into orbit. The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A main engine and the four solid-fueled boosters, built by Northrop Grumman, generated…