Tag: Human Spaceflight

Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station are studying anaerobic archaea in an experiment to determine if some of Earth’s early forms of life can handle a simulated cosmic environment. Shenzhou 18 crewmembers — commander Ye Guangfu and crewmates Li Cong and Li Guangsu — have been aboard the Tiangong space station since late April and have been busy conducting spacewalks and running experiments. That scientific work includes research on space radiation damage and adaptability of anaerobic archaea, as a newly released video shows.  China’s Shenzhou 18 astronauts perform research…

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Blue Origin set a new record on its latest space tourism flight. That mission, called NS-26, sent six people to suborbital space and back this morning (Aug. 29) from Blue Origin‘s West Texas spaceport, reaching a maximum altitude of 64.6 miles (104 kilometers) above ground level. One of them was Karsen Kitchen, a 21-year-old student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). According to Blue Origin, Kitchen is the youngest woman ever to cross the Kármán line, the 62-mile-high (100 km) boundary that many people regard as…

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Astronaut John McFall returned to the Paralympics today (Aug. 28) to carry the games’ official flag in the opening ceremony in Paris. McFall earned a bronze in the Paralympics Games in 2008, competing in the men’s T42 100-meter race in Beijing. Today McFall has a different career, involving considerable medical expertise and participating in the European Space Agency as a reserve astronaut. “I am truly honored to be standing here today, as a Paralympian and a member of the astronaut reserve with a physical disability,” McFall said in a statement.…

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Call it one high leap for astronaut science. The Polaris Dawn mission, funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Tuesday morning (Aug. 27). It has two major operations goals: to perform the first-ever private spacewalk and to fly higher than any crewed spacecraft since the Apollo era, at about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers). The four-person crew includes Isaacman as commander (who previously funded and commanded the private Inspiration4 orbital mission in 2021); pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a business…

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Polaris Dawn is poised to make history. The SpaceX mission, which is scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning (Aug. 27), will send four people to orbit for five days aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. That quartet will get farther from Earth than any human since the Apollo era — and two of them will perform the first spacewalk ever conducted by a private mission. Here’s a brief rundown of what to expect during the epic Polaris Dawn spacewalk, which you’ll be able to watch live, via a SpaceX webcast. Mission…

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On Saturday (Aug. 24), NASA announced its final decision regarding the fates of the two astronauts aboard the International Space Station whose original eight-day space jaunt had turned into a nebulous multi-month excursion. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who launched to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule on June 5, will return home no earlier than February of 2025. Furthermore, NASA and Boeing jointly decided that Williams and Wilmore will not head back to Earth aboard the same Starliner capsule that brought them to the ISS. Rather, they will climb…

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Two women astronauts will set a spaceflight record next week, if all goes according to plan.  The Polaris Dawn mission is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Aug. 27. It aims to perform the first-ever private spacewalk and to fly at a higher altitude above Earth than any crewed spacecraft since the Apollo era, at about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers). The mission is funded and commanded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who also funded and commanded the private Inspiration4 orbital mission in 2021. Polaris Dawn’s…

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The moon’s glow meets a multicolored aurora in a new astronaut image from space. International Space Station (ISS) and NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, a veteran photographer of the Expedition 71 crew, captured the moon and auroras from his perch 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. “The aurora have been amazing the past few days. Great timing for trying out a new lens that recently arrived on Cygnus,” Dominick said on X, formerly Twitter, in one of the posts. (Cygnus is a cargo spacecraft from Northrop Grumman that arrived Aug. 6).…

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Axiom Space’s next astronaut mission to the International Space Station will be delayed by several months, into 2025, due to required interagency approval processes. Ax-4, the name of that private astronaut effort by Axiom Space, had been targeted to launch no earlier than October of this year. It will now lift off no earlier than spring 2025, NASA officials announced on Friday (Aug. 9) via  X. “The Ax-4 crew members are pending approval to fly to the orbiting lab by the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel,” NASA officials wrote in the…

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Refresh 2024-08-07T19:48:05.208Z SpaceX Crew-9 may bring home Starliner astronauts Boeing Starliner may not bring its first astronauts home after all. NASA officials, absent a representative from Boeing, updated reporters today (Aug. 7) about how troubleshooting Starliner‘s undocking and landing may affect the next SpaceX astronaut flight to the International Space Station.  Starliner has faced a lot of difficulties since launching its first astronaut mission, most especially after 5 of its 28 reaction control thrusters (RCS) misfired during docking with the ISS on June 6. Work on the matter is ongoing, and…

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