Tag: NASA
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Three options for seeing the solar eclipse, from expensive to iffy to absolutely free
Skywatchers gather at Seattle’s Gas Works Park to watch the progress of 2017’s solar eclipse. (GeekWire Photo) After a seven-year gap, a total solar eclipse is once again due to make a coast-to-coast run across North America, boosting popular interest (and airfares) to astronomical proportions. The track of totality for the April 8 eclipse doesn’t…
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Starliner’s first commander: Don’t expect perfection on crew test flight
HOUSTON—While it doesn’t have the same relevance to public consciousness as safety problems with commercial airliners, a successful test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in May would be welcome news for the beleaguered aerospace company. This will be the first time the Starliner capsule flies into low-Earth orbit with humans aboard. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore…
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Boeing, NASA target May 1 for first crewed flight of Starliner to the space station
NASA astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) pose in front of a graphic of the mission patch for the Starliner Crew Flight Test. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now NASA is five weeks away from putting astronauts aboard a new commercial crew capsule. May 1 is the target launch date for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft…
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New study finds that DART changed both orbit and shape of Dimorphos asteroid
On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft slammed into the side of the 170-meter-wide asteroid Dimorphos to test future asteroid deflection tactics in the event an asteroid was threatening Earth. Following impact, DART teams confirmed that the spacecraft’s collision with the asteroid had successfully deflected the asteroid by a small amount…
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SpaceX’s workhorse launch pad now has the accoutrements for astronauts
Upgrades at SpaceX’s most-used launch pad in Florida got a trial run Thursday with the liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon cargo ship heading for the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft launched at 4:55 pm EDT (20:55 UTC) Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force…
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A Soyuz crew launch suffers a rare abort seconds before liftoff
On Thursday a crew of three people was due to launch on a Soyuz rocket, bound for the International Space Station. However, the launch scrubbed at about 20 seconds before the planned liftoff time, just before the sequence to ignite the rocket’s engines was initiated, due to unspecified issues. Shortly after the abort, there were…
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Roscosmos scrubs Soyuz crew launch 20 seconds before liftoff
The Soyuz 2.1a rocket at the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The mission scrubbed on Thursday, March 21, 20 seconds prior to liftoff. Image: Roscosmos via NASA Update 8:21 a.m. ET: Roscosmos aborted the MS-25 launch attempt. A new launch date has not been set, but could be as soon as Saturday, March 23. A…
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Dragon soars from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 on SpaceX’s 30th cargo mission to the Space Station
A Falcon 9 soars from pad 40 carrying a Cargo Dragon spaceship bound for the International Space Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. Update: Liftoff occurred on time at 4:55 p.m. EDT and was followed by separation of the Cargo Dragon vehicle a little less than 12 minutes into flight. SpaceX kicked off the next phase…
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Soyuz MS-25 launches to ISS with crew from Russia, Belarus, and NASA
The fourth human spaceflight — and third orbital human flight — of the year has successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz MS-25 was scheduled to fly on Thursday, March 21, at 13:21 UTC from Site 31/6 at the spaceport. Mission commander Oleg Novitsky, representing Roscosmos, NASA’s Tracy Caldwell…
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Thomas Stafford, who flew to the Moon and docked with Soyuz, dies at 93
Former NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, a three-star Air Force general known for a historic handshake in space with a Soviet cosmonaut nearly 50 years ago, died Monday in Florida. He was 93. Stafford was perhaps the most accomplished astronaut of his era who never walked on the Moon. He flew in space four times, helping…