Tag: Commercial Crew
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NASA acknowledges it cannot quantify risk of Starliner propulsion issues
With no consensus on the safety of the Starliner crew capsule, NASA officials said Wednesday they need another week or two before deciding whether to bring two astronauts back to Earth on Boeing’s spacecraft or extend their stay on the International Space Station until next year. Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, stricken by suspect thrusters and helium…
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NASA acknowledges it cannot quantify risk of Starliner propulsion issues
With no consensus on the safety of the Starliner crew capsule, NASA officials said Wednesday they need another week or two before deciding whether to bring two astronauts back to Earth on Boeing’s spacecraft or extend their stay on the International Space Station until next year. Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, stricken by suspect thrusters and helium…
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NASA is about to make its most important safety decision in nearly a generation
As soon as this week, NASA officials will make perhaps the agency’s most consequential safety decision in human spaceflight in 21 years. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are nearly 10 weeks into a test flight that was originally set to last a little more than one week. The two retired US Navy test…
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From Star City to Cape Canaveral, how a cosmonaut trains for a SpaceX flight
Although US astronauts are able to launch from Florida, some American astronauts still launch aboard Soyuz. Tracy Caldwell Dyson, an American, is aboard the ISS as of this writing, arriving after a liftoff from Kazakhstan on Soyuz MS-25. NASA and Roscosmos recently reached an agreement for a ride share, allowing one open seat for astronauts…
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Boeing’s Starliner has cost at least twice as much as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
Boeing announced another financial charge Wednesday for its troubled Starliner commercial crew program, bringing the company’s total losses on Starliner to $1.6 billion. In its quarterly earnings report, Boeing registered a $125 million loss on the Starliner program, blaming delays on the spacecraft’s still-ongoing Crew Flight Test, the program’s first mission to carry astronauts into…
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SpaceX moving Dragon splashdowns to Pacific to solve falling debris problem
Sometime next year, SpaceX will begin returning its Dragon crew and cargo capsules to splashdowns in the Pacific Ocean and end recoveries of the spacecraft off the coast of Florida. This will allow SpaceX to make changes to the way it brings Dragons back to Earth and eliminate the risk, however tiny, that a piece…
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NASA nears decision on what to do with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft
The astronauts who rode Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month still don’t know when they will return to Earth. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been in space for 51 days, six weeks longer than originally planned, as engineers on the groundwork through problems with Starliner’s propulsion system. The problems…
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NASA update on Starliner thruster issues: This is fine
Before clearing Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule to depart the International Space Station and head for Earth, NASA managers want to ensure the spacecraft’s problematic control thrusters can help guide the ship’s two-person crew home. The two astronauts who launched June 5 on the Starliner spacecraft’s first crew test flight agree with the managers, although they…
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NASA orders more tests on Starliner, but says crew isn’t stranded in space
NASA and Boeing officials pushed back Friday on headlines that the commercial Starliner crew capsule is stranded at the International Space Station but said they need more time to analyze data before formally clearing the spacecraft for undocking and reentry. Two NASA astronauts, commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will spend at least a…
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Boeing’s Starliner finally soars, but mission control reports more helium leaks
After years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft finally rocketed into orbit from Florida on Wednesday, sending two veteran NASA astronauts on a long-delayed shakedown cruise to the International Space Station. The Starliner capsule lifted off at 10:52 am EDT (14:52 UTC) on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Fifteen minutes later, after…