Astrophotography On The Go: When Failure Is Not An Option

Anytime you travel beyond your own backyard to do astrophotography, the whole endeavor can be lost because of one missing link in the chain. Here’s what to remember. The post Astrophotography On The Go: When Failure Is Not An Option appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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Boeing pushes second Starliner test flight to late summer

The second test flight for Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, known as the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission, won’t lift off until late this summer. After months of delays, NASA and Boeing have pushed the launch from April to no earlier than August, citing severe weather and technical problems with the spacecraft’s avionics. Boeing would be ready to launch the uncrewed Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station in May if an earlier opportunity should arise, the company said in a statement. However, a May launch would depend on the schedule…

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NASA, SpaceX declare Crew-2 astronaut mission ‘go’ for Thursday launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has given SpaceX the official go-ahead for the launch of its next crew mission to the International Space Station.  That mission, called Crew-2, will blast off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:11 a.m. EST (1011 GMT) on Thursday morning (April 22) from NASA’s historic Pad 39A and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will be the second flight of this particular Crew Dragon. The capsule, named “Endeavour,” first carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the space station last…

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US military picks 3 companies to test nuclear propulsion in cislunar space

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has picked three big space companies for the first phase of a larger project to test nuclear propulsion above low Earth orbit by 2025. General Atomics, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin each received contracts for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program’s first phase. While DARPA did not disclose the contract values in its announcement, media outlet Space News reported General Atomics received $22 million, Lockheed Martin $2.9 million and Blue Origin $2.5 million. The teams were selected due to their…

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