Tag: Human Spaceflight
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NASA chose the right crew to launch a new era of human space exploration
HOUSTON—Their mission is complete. The four people who flew beyond the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission are back home in Houston with their families. But the lessons from Artemis II are just beginning to be told. There are tangible, objective takeaways from the nine-day mission. How did NASA’s Space Launch System rocket perform? Nearly…
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The gravity of their experience hasn’t quite set in for the Artemis II astronauts
On the home stretch of their nine-day mission, the four astronauts flying aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft are just beginning to reflect on their experience of flying beyond the Moon. Their memories of Monday’s encounter with the Moon are still fresh as they return to Earth, heading for reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on…
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The Moon is already on Google Maps—did Artemis II really tell us anything new?
The data pipeline from NASA’s Artemis II mission opened to full blast a few hours after looping behind the far side of the Moon on Monday night, when the Orion spacecraft established a laser communications link with a receiving station back on Earth. A cache of high-resolution images began streaming down through this connection. NASA…
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Astronauts set distance record, revealing the Moon as a place to be explored
After staring at the Moon for almost eight hours Monday, the commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission finally ran out of ways to describe what he was seeing. “No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal,” said Reid Wiseman,…
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NASA Awards Vast Contract for Private Astronaut Mission to ISS in 2027
NASA has selected Los Angeles–based Vast to carry out a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in summer 2027, marking the company’s first flight to the orbital laboratory. The mission, designated as NASA’s sixth private astronaut mission to the ISS, will transport a crew for an approximately two-week stay aboard the station.…
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Former astronaut on lunar spacesuits: “I don’t think they’re great right now”
Crew members traveling to the lunar surface on NASA’s Artemis missions should be gearing up for a grind. They will wear heavier spacesuits than those worn by the Apollo astronauts, and NASA will ask them to do more than the first Moonwalkers did more than 50 years ago. The Moonwalking experience will amount to an…
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China Completes First Emergency Operation in Human Spaceflight Program After Shenzhou 20 Return
China has concluded the first emergency operation in the history of its human spaceflight program after an uncrewed Shenzhou 20 return capsule landed safely in north China’s Inner Mongolia, authorities said on Monday. The capsule parachuted into the Dongfeng landing site on Jan. 19 after spending about 270 days in orbit, where it had remained…
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Vast Delays Haven-1 Commercial Space Station Launch to 2027
Vast has delayed the launch of its first commercial space station, Haven-1, until at least the first quarter of 2027, pushing back an earlier target of 2026, the company said on Tuesday. The single-module station is designed to host up to four commercial astronauts for missions lasting as long as two weeks. Astronaut transport and…
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NASA Prepares Artemis 2 for February Lunar Mission After Schedule Acceleration
NASA is entering the final phase of preparations for its Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed flight toward the Moon in more than 50 years, as the agency moves up its launch timeline to February 2026. The U.S. space agency had previously targeted April 2026 for the mission, which will send four astronauts on a…
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The ISS is nearing retirement, so why is NASA still gung-ho about Starliner?
After so many delays, difficulties, and disappointments, you might be inclined to think that NASA wants to wash its hands of Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft. But that’s not the case. The manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, Steve Stich, told reporters Thursday that Boeing and its propulsion supplier, Aerojet Rocketdyne, are moving forward with several…