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☆ NASA to Say if Boeing Starliner Astronauts Will Stay Longer on Space Station
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-24 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

On Saturday, NASA is scheduled to finally announce its decision for how two of its astronauts, who went to orbit in June on Starliner, a spacecraft built by Boeing, will come home from the International Space Station. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore arrived at the space station on June 6. If everything during the mission had proceeded perfectly, Starliner would have been docked for just eight days. But this is a test flight for Starliner, the first with people aboard, and it was not a surprise that some problems might pop up. But problems with the Boeing spacecraft’s propulsion system turned out to be more than minor glitches.

Persons: Will, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore Organizations: NASA, Boeing, International Space, Starliner Locations: Starliner

This is one of the rare instances in a sport where an athlete’s performance directly hinges on what someone else does, Solotoff says: “A tapper can tap one inch off, too far away, and she could lose a race by a tenth or a hundredth of a second.”

Persons: Solotoff, ”

☆ NASA Aims to Restore Space Station Traffic After SpaceX and Boeing Problems
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the officials portrayed the orbital traffic jam as a good thing. “It complicates our lives, but in a really good way.”Operations at the space station have been more eventful than usual lately. A new Boeing spacecraft experienced propulsion problems en route to the space station. The astronauts on the station had to shelter for a while after a defunct Russian satellite disintegrated. And the question of when SpaceX could next fly more astronauts emerged after a rocket’s failure in orbit.

Persons: Ken Bowersox Organizations: Space, ”, Boeing, SpaceX Locations: Russian

☆ The Moon’s Most Shadowy Places Can’t Hide From NASA’s New Camera
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( Kenneth Chang | More About Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When a NASA spacecraft passes over Shackleton Crater on the moon and peers in, it sees this: a sea of blackness and nothing more. This 13-mile-wide crater lies close to the moon’s south pole. Here, the sun never rises high above the horizon, and the rim of Shackleton blocks the sun’s rays from ever shining directly onto the crater floor. Scientists have now figured out how to, in essence, flip on the light switch. Here is what the inside of Shackleton Crater looks like.

Persons: Shackleton Organizations: NASA Locations: Shackleton

☆ Spots on Mars Rock Share Similarities With Fossilized Life on Earth
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( Kenneth Chang | More About Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Did NASA’s Perseverance Rover just discover remnants of ancient life on Mars? Scientists working on the mission are too cautious to claim so, but they are over-the-moon excited about the most intriguing rock that the rover has come across in more than three years of exploring Mars. Within the rock, Perseverance’s instruments detected organic compounds, which would provide the building blocks for life as we know it. The rover also found veins of calcium sulfate — mineral deposits that appear to have been deposited by flowing water. Liquid water is another key ingredient for life.

Persons: we’ve, ” Nicola Fox

☆ NASA Spent $450 Million on a Moon Rover. Now It’s Canceling the Mission.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-17 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

NASA will spend about $800 million to not send a robotic rover to the moon. The rover, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is already built. The launch is still scheduled to take place late next year, but VIPER will not be aboard. However, delays with both the VIPER rover and the privately built spacecraft that was to have landed the rover on the moon’s surface led to uncertainty about the mission’s timeline. “Decisions like we’ve been discussing today are extremely difficult to make,” Nicola Fox, the associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, said during a news conference.

Persons: we’ve, ” Nicola Fox, ” Organizations: NASA, Exploration Rover

☆ SpaceX Rocket Fails, Breaking Apart in Orbit
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-12 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sustained a rare but catastrophic failure Thursday night, disintegrating in orbit during the deployment of the company’s latest batch of Starlink internet satellites. In a posting on X two hours after launch, Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, reported that the rocket had suffered a “RUD” — rapid unscheduled disassembly — while in orbit. It remained uncertain whether SpaceX could salvage the 20 Starlink satellites jeopardized by the rocket malfunction. This is the first failure of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2016, when one exploded on the launchpad during the loading of propellants for an engine firing test. Between that explosion, which destroyed an Israeli satellite, and the malfunction on Thursday, SpaceX had enjoyed a streak of more than 300 successful Falcon 9 missions.

Persons: Elon Musk, ” Organizations: SpaceX

☆ NASA Says No Plan to Use SpaceX to Rescue Boeing Starliner Astronauts
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-10 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For two astronauts supposedly stranded in space, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore of NASA are certainly enjoying living aboard the International Space Station for an extra month or two. “We are having a great time here on I.S.S.,” Ms. Williams said during a news conference from orbit on Wednesday. She added: “I’m not complaining. Butch isn’t complaining that we’re up here for a couple of extra weeks.”

Persons: Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, ” Ms, Williams, I’m, Butch isn’t, ” Organizations: NASA, Space Station

☆ Astronauts Are Not Stuck on the I.S.S., NASA and Boeing Officials Say
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-28 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Two NASA astronauts who traveled at the start of June to the International Space Station were originally scheduled to return home a couple of weeks ago, completing a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Instead, the astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will remain on the station for several weeks longer as NASA and Boeing engineers continue to study misbehaving thrusters on the vehicle. But don’t call the astronauts stuck or stranded, officials said on Friday. “We’re not stuck on I.S.S.,” Mark Nappi, the program manager at Boeing for Starliner, said during a news conference on Friday. “The crew is not in any danger.”

Persons: Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, “ We’re, ” Mark Nappi, “ Organizations: NASA, International Space, Boeing, Starliner

☆ Boeing’s Starliner Overcomes Malfunctioning Thrusters to Dock at Space Station
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

There were glitches with its propulsion system, but Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and the two NASA astronauts it carried successfully docked at the International Space Station on Thursday afternoon. The docking, at 1:34 p.m. Eastern time, was more than an hour later than planned, after the troubleshooting of several malfunctioning thrusters.

Organizations: NASA

☆ Starliner, la cápsula de Boeing, pone en órbita a astronautas de la NASA
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

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Organizations: The

☆ Boeing Carries NASA Astronauts to Orbit in ‘Milestone’ Starliner Flight
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two NASA astronauts finally headed to orbit on Wednesday in a vehicle built by Boeing, the aerospace giant. Boeing is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. SpaceX, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total. The long awaited flight of the Boeing vehicle is the latest step in NASA’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program. “This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator said during a news conference after the launch.

Persons: Bill Nelson Organizations: NASA, Boeing, SpaceX, International Space Station Locations: Starliner

☆ Live Updates: NASA and Boeing Prepare to Launch Astronauts on Starliner Spacecraft
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Kenneth Chang | The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on their way to the Starliner spacecraft on May 6, before the launch was called off. “It almost feels unreal,” Ms. Williams replied. She was a test pilot in the U.S. Navy and has more than 3,000 hours flying 30 different aircraft. After a glitch-filled test flight in December 2019 with no crew aboard, delays shuffled the astronaut assignments. Indeed, none of the astronauts that NASA named in 2018 to fly on the test flight ended up being on it.

Persons: Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Wilmore, Williams, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, Ms, “, ” Steve Stich, They’ve, ” Mr, Stich Organizations: Boeing, Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, U.S . Navy, NASA, Navy, Station Locations: Florida, Houston, Ohio, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Iraq, Bosnia

☆ Live Updates: NASA Astronauts Prepare for 1st Launch on Boeing’s Starliner
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-01 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

☆ NASA Astronauts to Wait Another Week for Boeing Starliner Launch
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which was scheduled to take two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on May 6, will remain on the ground for at least another week as engineers chase down a small helium leak. Additional opportunities to launch are available on June 2, June 5 and June 6. Officials from Boeing and NASA said they needed the time to understand the problem and develop workarounds. On May 6, the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were already strapped in the Starliner when the launch was called off because of a malfunctioning valve in the second stage of the Atlas V rocket. That problem was unrelated to the Starliner capsule, but then engineers spotted a small helium leak in the Starliner’s propulsion system.

Persons: Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams Organizations: NASA, International, Station, Cape Canaveral Space Force, Boeing, Atlas V Locations: Florida

☆ Latest Updates: NASA Astronauts Prepare for First Launch on Boeing Starliner
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are the NASA astronauts set for Boeing’s flight test of the Starliner spacecraft. She was a test pilot in the U.S. Navy and has more than 3,000 hours flying 30 different aircraft. Mr. Wilmore, a native of Tennessee, was also a Navy test pilot, and he flew combat missions over Iraq and Bosnia in the 1990s. After a glitch-filled test flight in December 2019 with no crew aboard, delays shuffled the astronaut assignments. Indeed, none of the astronauts that NASA named in 2018 to fly on the test flight are on the upcoming test flight.

Persons: Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, Ms, Williams, Wilmore, Mr, ” Organizations: NASA, Boeing, U.S . Navy, Navy, Station Locations: Ohio, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Iraq, Bosnia

☆ NASA Seeks ‘Hail Mary’ for Its Mars Rocks Return Mission
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The cost of a proposed NASA mission to gather rocks on Mars and return them to Earth is spiraling upward and slipping further into the future. So on Monday, space agency officials asked for ideas on simplifying the mission and trimming its price tag. “The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said during a news conference on Monday. “And not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long.”The mission, known as Mars Sample Return, is central to the search for signs that life may have existed on the red planet. NASA had hoped that Mars Sample Return would cost $5 billion to $7 billion, and that the rocks would arrive on Earth in 2033.

Persons: Bill Nelson Organizations: NASA

But the rattling shook buildings in New York City and drove startled residents into the streets. Image The command room of New York City Emergency Management. Today’s earthquake Magnitude 4.8 Conn. Pa. 1964 4.5 1994 4.6 250-mile radius from New York City Md. 250-mile radius from New York City Del. While earthquakes in New York City are surprises to most, seismologists say the ground is not as stable as New Yorkers might believe.

Persons: “, Kathy Hochul, ” Gov, Philip D, Murphy, Con Edison, Eric Adams, ”, Adams, Zach Iscol, Dave Sanders, Ron Hamburger, Valorie Brennan, Ada Carrasco, The New York Times “ I’ve, Kristina Feeley, Feeley, Folarin, “ There’s, Kolawole, Lazaro Gamio, Riyad H, Mansour, Janti, Hamburger, Michael Kemper, Clara Dossetter, David Dossetter, Dossetter, ’ ”, Lola Fadulu, Gaya Gupta, Hurubie Meko, Michael Wilson, William J . Broad, Kenneth Chang, Emma Fitzsimmons, Sarah Maslin Nir, Erin Nolan, Mihir Zaveri, Maria Cramer, Grace Ashford, Camille Baker, Liset Cruz, Michael Paulson, Patrick McGeehan, Troy Closson Organizations: ”, United States Geological Survey, Police Department, Fire Department, Con, Gracie Mansion, The New York Times, Whitehouse, New York City Emergency Management, Credit, Lamont, Columbia University, Maine CANADA, New York City Del, Lincoln Center, New York Philharmonic, United Nations, Children U.S, Security, New York Police, United Airlines, Newark Liberty International Airport Locations: Newark, New Jersey, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, New York, Rockland County, Murphy of New Jersey, Whitehouse, N.J, California, Japan, Zach Iscol , New York, New, Northridge, Los Angeles, Califon, Marble, Ramapo, New York , New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Palisades, N.Y, N.H, Pa, New York City Md, Del, Va, Maine, R.I, Md, Palestinian, Gaza, East Coast, “, York, San Francisco, Gaya

☆ NASA Picks 3 Companies to Help Astronauts Drive Around the Moon
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

NASA will be renting some cool wheels to drive around the moon. Space agency officials announced on Wednesday that they have hired three companies to come up with preliminary designs for vehicles to take NASA astronauts around the lunar south polar region in the coming years. After the astronauts return to Earth, these vehicles would be able to self-drive around as robotic explorers, similar to NASA’s rovers on Mars. The self-driving capability would also allow the vehicle to meet the next astronaut mission at a different location. “Where it will go, there are no roads,” Jacob Bleacher, the chief exploration scientist at NASA, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Persons: Jacob, Venturi Organizations: NASA, Houston Locations: Golden, Colo, Hawthorne , Calif

☆ What Is SpaceX’s Starship? It’s Really a Mars Ship.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Kenneth Chang | More About Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket, which made its first flight in November 2022, holds the current record for the maximum thrust of a rocket: 8.8 million pounds. The maximum thrust of the Saturn V rocket that took NASA astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program was relatively paltry: 7.6 million pounds. An even more transformative feature of Starship is that it is designed to be entirely reusable. That means all of the really expensive pieces — like the 33 Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster and six additional Raptors in Starship itself — will be used over and over instead of thrown away into the ocean after one flight. Starship and Super Heavy are shiny because SpaceX made them out of stainless steel, which is cheaper than using other materials like carbon composites.

Persons: Musk Organizations: Saturn, NASA, Super, Raptors, SpaceX

☆ Live Updates: SpaceX Prepares to Launch Third Starship Flight
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Kenneth Chang | Michael Roston | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

ET Kenneth Chang andSpaceX is trying for a third time to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, on a journey part of the way around Earth. The vehicle flew twice last year from a SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. There is a 110-minute window during which the flight could launch, so the company could launch later as is often the case during test flights. The Starship system consists of two stages — the Super Heavy rocket booster and the upper-stage spacecraft, which is also called Starship. SpaceX’s second Starship flight, on Nov. 18, achieved several milestones, including an in-flight procedure called hot staging in which the upper-stage engines start firing before the booster stage drops away.

Persons: Kenneth Chang, Elon Musk, SpaceX’s Organizations: SpaceX, NASA, SpaceX’s, New York Times Locations: Boca Chica , Texas, Gulf of Mexico

☆ SpaceX Blazes Forward With Latest Starship Launch
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The third try turned out to be closer to the charm for Elon Musk and SpaceX, as company’s mammoth Starship rocket launched on Thursday and traveled about halfway around the Earth before it was lost as it re-entered the atmosphere. At 8:25 a.m. Central time, Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly — lifted off from the coast of South Texas. The ascent was smooth, with the upper Starship stage reaching orbital velocities. About 45 minutes after launch, it started re-entering the atmosphere, heading toward a belly-flop splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Then communications with Starship ended, and SpaceX later said the vehicle had not survived the re-entry.

Persons: Elon Musk Organizations: SpaceX, NASA Locations: South Texas

Such blackouts happen, for instance, when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule returns to Earth from the International Space Station with its complement of four astronauts. Mission controllers must wait with bated breath to be reassured that the spacecraft’s heat shield has held up and protected the crew during atmospheric re-entry. Until Starship succumbed to the intense forces of re-entry on Thursday, SpaceX used its Starlink internet satellites to relay the live video feed. The Starlink satellites are in higher orbits, and sending signals upward — away from the plasma — is easier than trying to communicate through it to antennas on the ground. Before it parachuted to the ground, its Winnebago capsule recorded a day-glow re-entry.

Persons: Varda Organizations: International, SpaceX

☆ Odysseus Moon Lander to Power Down, With Aim to Extend Time on Surface
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Kenneth Chang | More About Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Odysseus is not dead yet. But it will soon be time to say, “Good night, moon lander.”Last week, Odysseus, a privately built robotic lunar lander, became the first American spacecraft to set down on the moon in more than 50 years, and the first nongovernmental effort ever to accomplish that feat. But like the Homeric Greek hero it was named after, the lander has not had an easy journey with a neat happy ending. In a news conference on Wednesday, Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that built Odysseus, said the spacecraft continued to operate, but that it would be put into a planned shutdown later on Wednesday. “We’ve conducted a very successful mission,” said Steve Altemus, the chief executive of Intuitive Machines.

Persons: Odysseus, “ We’ve, ”, Steve Altemus Locations: Houston

☆ Odysseus Sends Moon Landing Photos Home With Time Running Out
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Odysseus, the American robotic spacecraft that landed on the moon last week, is likely to die in the next day or so. Communications with the toppled lander remain limited and will end when sunlight is no longer shining on the solar panels, Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that built and operates Odysseus, said on Monday morning. The company also released images that the spacecraft took as it descended, but none yet from the surface. Odysseus is the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, and the first private one ever to successfully set down there in one piece. However, during the landing on Thursday evening, the lander, about 14 feet tall, appears to have been traveling faster than planned and ended up tipped over on its side.

Persons: Odysseus Organizations: Communications Locations: Houston

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