Tag: International Space Station

Will Boeing’s Starliner astronauts ride a SpaceX Dragon home in 2025? NASA could decide next week

NeRD

Boeing’s two Starliner astronauts may learn their fate in the next two weeks — but, for now, NASA still doesn’t know when the duo is coming home.  So, while the space agency’s best and brightest works with Boeing engineers to continue assessing data from ground tests of Starliner’s systems, the spacecraft’s crew, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, will remain aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for now. Wilmore and Williams launched to the ISS aboard Starliner for the spacecraft’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) on June 5. Their mission,…

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NASA considers sending Boeing Starliner astronauts home on SpaceX Dragon

NeRD

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 as NASA revealed yesterday (Aug. 6), it will require…

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Earth from space: Astronauts share photography tips for snapping amazing photos from the ISS

NeRD

The view from Earth looking up at the stars is an incredible one, but a select few have the chance to look down at their home planet from space and capture the incredible scenery on camera.  A recent X Spaces (formerly Twitter Spaces) event featured NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Don Pettit revealing the secrets of doing astrophotography from low Earth orbit. Dominick, who is currently on board the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 71, and Pettit, who will launch to the orbiting outpost in September, passed…

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Listen live today as NASA, Boeing discuss Starliner return, spacewalk issues

NeRD

NASA and Boeing will discuss their next plans and a possible landing schedule for the first Starliner spacecraft mission with astronauts later today (June 28), and you can listen in live. Boeing Starliner launched on June 5 for what was supposed to be a 10-day mission, but the test effort with astronauts needed extra time to address helium leaks and thruster issues uncovered during the June 6 docking with the International Space Station (ISS). The team will provide an update to reporters at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), which you…

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ISS astronauts take shelter in Boeing Starliner and other return spacecraft after June 26 satellite breakup

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Nine astronauts on the space station briefly moved to their docked return spacecraft late Wednesday (June 26) as a satellite broke up in low Earth orbit. The Expedition 71 crew on the International Space Station (ISS) went to their three spacecraft, including Boeing Starliner, shortly after 9 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT), according to a brief NASA update on X, formerly known as Twitter. As the ISS follows a time zone identical to GMT, according to the European Space Agency, the astronauts were likely in their sleep period when the incident…

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Sprites from space! Astronaut photographs rare red lightning phenomenon from ISS

NeRD

An astronaut captured an elusive glimpse of red lightning from space. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick imaged the rare red sprite phenomenon from the International Space Station earlier in the year, which may build on earlier studies of the lightning type on the orbiting complex. “Super lucky a few weeks ago when shooting a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa. One of the frames in the timelapse had a red sprite,” NASA astronaut Dominick wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday (June 20).  “A rare event.…

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NASA cancels ISS spacewalk due to spacesuit coolant leak (video)

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NASA cancelled a spacewalk at the International Space Station today (June 24) following a spacesuit coolant leak in the hatch. NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mike Barratt were told by Mission Control at 8:52 a.m. EDT (1252 GMT) to stop the planned 6.5-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS). The pair had already switched over to the internal power in their suits at 8:46 a.m. (1246 GMT), meaning the spacewalk had technically started. Following the cancellation, astronauts opened the hatch into the ISS at 9:51 a.m. EDT (1351 GMT),…

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Watch SpaceX’s Crew-8 astronauts move their Dragon at the ISS May 2 to make way for Boeing’s Starliner

NeRD

The four astronauts of SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission will move their Dragon capsule to a different port at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday morning (May 2), and you can watch the action live. The Dragon, named Endeavour, is scheduled to undock from the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module on Thursday at 7:45 a.m. EDT (1145 GMT), then autonomously dock with Harmony’s space-facing port at 8:28 a.m. EDT (1228 GMT). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA. Coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. EDT…

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Russian cosmonauts make quick work of space station spacewalk

NeRD

Two Russian cosmonauts completed a spacewalk at the International Space Station, wrapping up all of their tasks with time to spare, including the deployment of a radar that they began last year. Expedition 71 crewmates Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub successfully unfolded and latched the fourth of four panels for a synthetic radar communications system on the Russian Nauka multipurpose laboratory module (MLM) at 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT) on Thursday (April 25), 47 minutes after the spacewalk began.  “I will try first manually,” said Chub, who used his gloved…

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Object that slammed into Florida home was indeed space junk from ISS, NASA confirms

NeRD

The mysterious object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA has confirmed. That home, in the seaside city of Naples, belongs to Alejandro Otero. Shortly after the March 8 incident, Otero said he thought the offending object was part of a cargo pallet packed with 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of aging batteries jettisoned from the ISS in March 2021.  And he was right, according to a new NASA analysis of the object, which was performed at…

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