Tag: Human Spaceflight

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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China’s Shenzhou 18 mission staged an emergency drill recently to boost preparedness aboard the country’s space station. Shenzhou 18 commander Ye Guangfu and crewmates Li Cong and Li Guangsu conducted the drill in mid-July to practice procedures for the case of a decompression event aboard the Tiangong space station. The crew worked in collaboration with the ground team in Beijing, simulating the whole process of emergency response to a simulated scenario of space debris striking Tiangong and causing decompression. The astronauts of China’s Shenzhou 18 mission simulate a debris-strike emergency…

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NASA says its next spacewalk will be delayed indefinitely until engineers understand more about what caused a coolant leak on June 24. Tracy Dyson, a NASA astronaut, had a brief spacesuit leak a month ago while still in the hatch of the International Space Station (ISS). She and Mike Barrett had just opened the door for a 6.5-hour spacewalk for maintenance activities, when showers of ice particles erupted from a spacesuit connection to the ISS. The spacewalk was suspended, but the astronauts were never in any danger, NASA has emphasized.…

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NASA will perform its own re-authorization of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 before the rocket launches its next astronaut crew or cargo mission, the agency confirmed Wednesday (July 17). Falcon 9 experienced a rare failure during an engine burn of SpaceX rocket’s second stage, due to an oxygen leak, during a launch on Thursday (July 11). A mandatory mishap investigation is ongoing. SpaceX, however, asked the Federal Aviation Administration Monday (July 15) to allow for future launches under a “public safety determination”, meaning the launch posed no risk to public safety. On…

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Originally published at Scientific American. Samantha Lawler is an assistant professor of Astronomy at the University of Regina. The e-mail arrived, like a bolt from blue, on the otherwise typical Thursday afternoon of May 9. The message was from a journalist, asking me, an astronomer, for an interview about a farmer who had reportedly found space junk while prepping his fields for springtime seeding, just an hour’s drive from my home in Saskatchewan. “Yeah, right,” I said to myself as I tapped out my affirmative reply. The odds are already…

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Inspiration4 was the world’s first all-civilian orbital mission, sending a four-person crew skyward atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The privately funded commercial mission took place from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18, 2021. Inspiration4 used a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft called “Resilience,” which was commanded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. You should get familiar with that name, as he’s also leading the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, the first effort in the three-flight Polaris program, which is funded and commanded by Isaacman. Isaacman booked…

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Perhaps the most popular example of space food that possibly never was, astronaut ice cream is now 50 years old. The crunchy, room temperature treat, which melts as the freeze-dried ice cream rehydrates in your mouth, was first introduced in 1974 by American Outdoor Products. According to Astronaut Foods, the brand under which the Space Age snack is still marketed, the idea came about after a NASA center requested it for its visitors. “Our founder, Ron Smith, told Serious Eats that in 1974, ‘Goddard Air and Space Museum contacted us…

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A former cryptocurrency company plans to launch a reality television series that will follow its efforts to send people from underrepresented nations to space aboard a Blue Origin suborbital vehicle. The Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), formerly called the Crypto Space Agency, plans to send people from India, Nigeria and a region known as the Small Island Developing States on a future Blue Origin flight, the U.S. company announced Monday (July 1). Spaceflight candidates will first be chosen through a public voting system, then the finalists will participate in…

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