NASA

August 27, 2024 1:44 PM

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s plight piles pressure on Boeing’s space unit

NASA's decision to send Boeing's Starliner capsule home without astronauts follows years of missteps by the planemaker in its space business and raises doubts over the future of the unit, analysts and industry sources said. Taking NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) was to have been a turning point for Starliner after years of delays, technical glitches and supply chain mishaps. Starliner has cost Boeing $1.6 billion in overruns since 2016, a...

August 25, 2024 6:38 PM

Astronauts Butch Wilmore, Sunita Williams to remain in space till February 2025: NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has said that it is "too risky" to bring astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth at this time, leading to the decision that Boeing's Starliner capsule will return without them. Wilmore and Williams will continue their work as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew and are now scheduled to return in February 2025. This means that what was initially intended to be a week-long test flight will extend to around eight months. "W...

August 5, 2024 2:38 PM

Meteorite impacts identified as driver of moon’s tenuous atmosphere

The NASA astronauts who became the first people to land on the moon's surface in the 1960s and 1970s also discovered a previously unknown lunar characteristic - it has an atmosphere, though quite tenuous. Soil samples they retrieved are now revealing the main physical process driving this atmosphere. By analyzing which forms of two elements - potassium and rubidium - were present in nine tiny soil samples from five Apollo missions, researchers determined that the lunar atmosphere was created an...

June 18, 2024 8:56 AM

India-US Space Partnership: Advanced training for ISRO astronauts to start at NASA

Marking a significant milestone in the India-US space partnership and space exploration, the two countries concluded the Strategic Framework for Human Spaceflight Cooperation to deepen interoperability in space and are working toward commencing advanced training for ISRO astronauts at the NASA Johnson Space Center, the first-ever joint effort between NASA and ISRO astronauts at the International Space Station. A fact sheet issued by the US and India on Monday after the iCET Dialogue between US ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - JUNE 5: After a series of delays, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launches from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test at 10:52 a.m. on June 5, 2024 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Astronauts Suni Williams (not seen) and Butch Wilmore (not seen) are traveling to the International Space Station for about a week followed by a landing in the Western United States. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)

June 12, 2024 3:01 PM

NASA, Boeing push back Starliner’s crewed return to June 18

NASA and Boeing BA.N said they expect to bring Starliner and its first astronaut crew back to Earth from the International Space Station as soon as June 18, later than previously scheduled as mission analysts examine issues that could affect its return. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft was originally expected to undock on Friday and return to Earth after launching its inaugural crew of two NASA astronauts from Florida on June 5. The mission is a crucial test before the U.S. space agency ca...

June 7, 2024 10:47 AM

Boeing Starliner’s first astronaut crew welcomed aboard space station

Boeing's new Starliner capsule and an inaugural two-member NASA crew safely docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, meeting a key test in proving the vessel's flight-worthiness and sharpening Boeing's competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The rendezvous was achieved despite an earlier loss of several guidance-control jet thrusters, some of them due to a helium propulsion leak, which NASA and Boeing said should not compromise the mission. The CST-100 Starliner, with veteran astr...

The Chang'e-6 probe is being successfully launched by a Long March-5 carrier rocket from China's Wenchang Spaceport in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China, on May 3, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

June 6, 2024 3:32 PM

China’s Chang’e-6 transfers moon samples to spacecraft, set for return to Earth

China's Chang'e-6 probe transferred samples it collected from the moon's far side to a spacecraft in lunar orbit on Thursday, state news agency Xinhua reported. After receiving the samples, the uncrewed spacecraft will fly back to Earth, with an expected landing in China's Inner Mongolia region on June 25. If successful, China will be the first country to ever return lunar matter from the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth. The Chang'e-6 probe took off from the moon's far ...

June 6, 2024 12:50 PM

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams makes history on Boeing’s Starliner maiden crewed mission

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, carrying astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore, took off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday for a test mission to the International Space Station. Williams, 58, an Indian American astronaut, made history as the first woman to pilot a spacecraft on its maiden mission. This flight also marks her third journey into space. Moments before liftoff, Williams radioed mission control with the message, "Let's go, Calyp...

May 29, 2024 1:50 PM

Venus has more volcanism than previously known, new analysis finds

Venus appears to be more volcanically active than previously known, according to scientists whose new analysis of decades-old radar images has spotted evidence of eruptions at two additional sites on the surface of Earth's inhospitable planetary neighbor. Radar images obtained by NASA's Magellan spacecraft from 1990 to 1992 indicated large lava flows at these two locations in the Venusian northern hemisphere at the time of the observations, the researchers said. These findings, coupled with pre...

May 26, 2024 5:23 PM

NASA launches small climate satellite to study earth’s poles

NASA successfully launched the first of a pair of small climate satellites on Saturday from the Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The mission, dubbed PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment), aims to study heat emissions at the Earth's poles, shedding light on the intricate interplay between these regions and global climate change. The PREFIRE mission consists of two shoebox-sized CubeSats, each equipped with a sophisticated thermal infrared spectrometer ...