Tag: NASA
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FAA Clears SpaceX Starship for Flight After March Mishap, Expands Safety Zones
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday granted approval for SpaceX to proceed with its next Starship test flight following an investigation into a March explosion, expanding airspace safety zones and signaling strengthened international coordination with countries along the rocket’s flight path. The green light paves the way for Starship Flight 9 to launch…
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Senate Sets Early June Vote on Jared Isaacman for NASA Administrator
The U.S. Senate is poised to vote in early June on the confirmation of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator, following a procedural move by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to advance the nomination. Thune filed for cloture on May 22, paving the way for a full Senate vote after the chamber returns from the…
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NASA Weighs Reducing ISS Crew and Research Amid Budget Constraints
NASA is considering scaling back the size of its International Space Station (ISS) crew and limiting research activities due to ongoing budget pressures, even before proposed cuts outlined in the U.S. government’s fiscal year 2026 request take effect. Speaking at a May 20 press briefing about the upcoming Ax-4 private astronaut mission, Dana Weigel, ISS…
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Axiom Mission 4 delayed due to Dragon capsule readiness
[Left] Ax-4 Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Commander Peggy Whitson, and Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski [Right] have been training to live and work aboard the space station for the past eight months in preparation for their mission, which is targeted to launch no earlier than June 8, 2025. Image: Axiom Space The debut…
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Rocket Report: Rocket Lab to demo cargo delivery; America’s new ICBM in trouble
Welcome to Edition 7.43 of the Rocket Report! There’s been a lot of recent news in hypersonic testing. We cover some of that in this week’s newsletter, which is just a taste of the US military’s appetite for fielding its own hypersonic weapons, and conversely, the Pentagon’s emphasis on the detection and destruction of an…
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Rocket Report: Rocket Lab to demo cargo delivery; America’s new ICBM in trouble
Welcome to Edition 7.43 of the Rocket Report! There’s been a lot of recent news in hypersonic testing. We cover some of that in this week’s newsletter, which is just a taste of the US military’s appetite for fielding its own hypersonic weapons, and conversely, the Pentagon’s emphasis on the detection and destruction of an…
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Butch and Suni weren’t the only ones: the stories of astronauts “stranded” in space
After a planned eight day mission to the ISS that launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams splashed down near Florida over nine months later on March 18, 2025. The two astronauts missed family events, birthdays, and Christmas while engineers tried to determine whether Boeing’s Starliner capsule would be safe to return with…
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SPHEREx starts science observations while PUNCH commissioning continues
NASA’s latest space telescope has taken the first science observations of its two-year mission to study the universe in dozens of colors. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) telescope maps the entire sky in 102 infrared wavelengths — or colors — to study galaxy formation, cosmic…
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Vast to complete Haven-1 primary structure in July 2025, ahead of target May 2026 launch date
A model of the final version of Vast’s Haven-1 space station is shown with a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked. The model was on display at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado in April 2025. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now Space habitation company, Vast, is now one year away from being able to stake its…
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Proposed 24 percent cut to NASA budget eliminates key Artemis architecture, climate research
The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Image: NASA Update May 3, 5:22 p.m. EDT: Corrected the location of Northrop Grumman’s facility housing the HALO module for the Gateway. The White House released its proposed federal spending budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday and with it a series of deep cuts to…