Monthly Archives: June 2024

Two Chinese astronauts just set a new spacewalking record for the country.

Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu, two members of China's three-person Shenzhou 18 mission, spent about 8.5 hours working outside the Tiangong space station today (May 28).

That's longer than any previous Chinese spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), according to the nation's state-run Xinhua news service.

Related: 1,000 days in space! Core module of China's Tiangong space station hits milestone

Ye and Li "completed the installation of the space station's space debris protection device and the inspection of extravehicular equipment and facilities," officials with the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) wrote in an update today. (Translation via Google.)

Space junk is a genuine worry for Chinese space officials; Tiangong suffered a partial power loss recently after a debris strike on its solar arrays, for example.

Today's EVA was the first for Li and the second for Ye, who also stepped outside Tiangong during the Shenzhou 13 mission in December 2021. The third member of the Shenzhou 18 mission, Li Cong, assisted the EVA from inside Tiangong, monitoring the spacewalkers and their activities.

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

This was the first EVA for the six-month-long Shenzhou 18 mission, which launched to Tiangong in late April. China's previous crewed flight, Shenzhou 17, performed two spacewalks outside Tiangong. Shenzhou 15 set the nation's single-mission mark with four EVAs.

Shenzhou 18 may be similarly active. "According to the plan, a large number of scientific experiments and technical tests, as well as astronaut crew extravehicular activities and application payload extravehicular missions, will be carried out during the Shenzhou 18 manned flight mission," CMSA officials wrote in today's update.

Chinese astronauts have now conducted a total of 16 spacewalks to date, according to Xinhua. The nation's first EVA occurred on Sept. 27, 2008, when Zhai Zhigang ventured outside his Shenzhou 7 capsule for about 20 minutes.

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Chinese astronauts conduct record-breaking spacewalk (video) - Space.com

An artist's illustration of Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplanes and Life habitat in orbit

Welcome to the Orbital Age.

Coined by Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice in 2022, this new era marks the transition, he said, from 60 years of space exploration to true space commercialisation. Brought about by the rapid privatisation of space services powered by reusable rockets and falling launch costs and accelerated by rising geopolitical tensions on Earth, it heralds the dawn of a radically new way of using orbit.

Instead of a handful of astronauts flying to government-run space stations, Vice wrote, we will soon see thousands of workers flying to commercial space destinations to work in microgravity factories in sectors such as biotech and energy.

Colorado-headquartered Sierra Spaceaims to take a lead in this brave new off-world economy. It is doing so with two radical new takes on critical components of orbital systems.

The first is the Dream Chaser spaceplane, an uncrewed, autonomous and reusable vehicle that will transport and return cargo from space. Tenacity, the first spacecraft in a planned fleet, is due to launch on the first of seven resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year.

The second component, still a few years away from launch, is Life (Large Integrated Flexible Environment). A revolutionary reimagining of how to house humans in space, the space station habitat is made of woven fabrics that are inflated once in orbit, providing more space for living and working without a massive increase in weight or transportation requirements.

The companys aim is nothing less than creating an entire space ecosystem for this new industrial age, says Shawn Buckley, vice-president of destinations, to Professional Engineering. Sierra Space differentiates itself from virtually any other company, he claims. We have the plane that goes to our space station, we have the space station, and then we're developing the systems inside the space station.

Together, the elements could transform humanitys use of the orbital environment.

Microgravity manufacturing offers a way of reducing product defects and creating ordered structures that are impossible to build on Earth. Potentially suited for bioprintingand electronics, the process could soon transition from small-scale experiments to a genuine economic opportunity but it brings a new set of challenges.

Chief amongst these is safely transporting specimens, and eventually complete products, back to Earth. Sierra Space aims to enable that with a soft landing that puts cargo through forces of only 1.5G, according to chief safety officer Angie Wise. The spaceplane design unlike a capsule means that the Dream Chaser can land on runways that are 10,000 feet (3km) or longer.

The scientific community would prefer to have that gentle reentry, especially when we're starting to talk about things like 3D printing in space, and crystal growth, because we don't want those to collapse on landing, says Wise. The current capsules that are out there providing cargo do have a harder landing into the ocean, and then it can take significant time for them to recover those vehicles from the ocean and fly the hardware back.

She adds: It takes us about 30 minutes for the vehicle to cool off for these NASA missions, we actually land at Kennedy Space Centre, so that they can immediately get the goods off and then into their labs.

Key features of the design include folding wings, which minimise the amount of space the craft takes while stowed in a 5m rocket fairingbefore unfolding in orbit. Describing it as the first folded wing design in space, Wise is tight-lipped about specific engineering features of the wings locking mechanism, but says it is novel for space.

Combined with a detachable 4.5m cargo module known as Shooting Star, Dream Chaser will carry more than five tonnes of cargo to orbit. The module will detach before reentering the atmosphere, where it and a fresh cargo of waste will burn up.

While the first Dream Chaser is uncrewed, Sierra Space aims to eventually carry crew to and from the space station and other low-Earth orbit (LEO) destinations in future generations.

Some of those destinations could be the companys own Life habitat. Based on soft goods expandable technology, the habitat has been in development for over 15 years. During launch, the textiles will be packed tight around a hard core in the centre. Once in orbit, a 40m3 package will be expanded into almost 300m3.

This gives us a large amount of volume, says Buckley. Talk to anybody whos been to space, the astronauts they will always say There's not enough space in space, there's not enough space to do experiments, to live, to be able to move around.

He explains: You press a button and basically a pressure control system inflates this volume On first ingress, our inhabitants will go inside there and unpack that core, which has thousands and thousands of pounds of equipment and facilities.

Hearing the phrase inflatable space station does raise a rather concerning possibility what if it is hit by space junk? Would it burst like a balloon, putting occupants in immediate danger?

Thankfully not, says Buckley. The company is working with NASA to ensure it can track debris, and the chosen materials are designed to prevent damage.

Our pressure shell is made out of Vectran, he says. Assembled in a basket weave architecture, it is reportedly stronger than steel. We can inflate this to these high pressures, and it's extremely strong.

Outside the structural layer is a series of soft goods, which protect the inside from micrometre orbital debris. It's lightweight, it's robust, says Buckley. It basically breaks the debris up on the first hit on the outer layer, and then the other layers catch it.

The resulting damage, therefore, should be much less dramatic than the video of the habitat being over-inflated. Further creep testing forecasts that the materials should last for 2m years at operating pressure.

Before...

... and after bursting. Operational damage should be far less dramatic, according to Buckley

The company, which is targeting 2028 for a first launch of Life, hopes its approach could provide more space in space. Future generations will be even bigger. In a single launch we can put 4-5,000m3 in space. The International Space Station is 1,000m3, says Buckley. It's gonna change everything in space.

By providing capabilities across the spaceflight and habitation spectrum, Sierra Space avoids reliance on other companies for services such as transportation. Commonality of parts between systems also ensures that they should interface and work together smoothly, boosting reliability.

We have systems which provide power. We have systems which provide the thermal dissipation, so you don't overheat while you're inside the habitat. We have systems which allow you to communicate, the guidance. All of those systems encompass our Life habitat, says Buckley.

The Sierra Space team with the Dream Chaser

Together, Dream Chaser and the space station could provide a complete orbital solution for nations and private customers, making space more accessible.

I think we're just scratching the surface of the Orbital Age, says Wise. These systems are going to allow for more people, more diversity of people, diversity of experiments.

There's so many pharmaceutical implicationsof being able to do experiments in microgravity, 3D manufacturing I don't even think that I can fully imagine all of the different things that can start coming out of this space economy.

Its the next Industrial Age, agrees Buckley. We see hundreds, thousands of people working in space and living in space. And not just in LEO I look at the Moon, and I think There's going to be an inflatable habitat on the Moon, I'm going to do this in my lifetime. It's going to happen from here at Sierra Space. And our technology serves deep space.

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Sierra Space reinvents orbit with reusable spaceplane and inflatable space station - Professional Engineering

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a bird. I fantasized about flight, and the double meaning of flight: escape. Oh how I wanted to soar with wings taut and just glide the air currents the way the upper hawks seem toleave my house, my school, my town and float far beyond all diurnal troubles. Are these magnificent birds having a good time up there? Are they joy-riding? Do they look down on us as silly blips from a distance, everything just potential prey or not prey, light or dark shadow puppets?

Then, in the mix of all the Carl Sagan andCosmos forever playing on the den TV in the background as if on a loop, I dreamed of getting higher than that layer of our atmosphereall the way to outer space, to see the earth from above the earth. I still do. Couldnt having that perspective solve so many human, and human-caused, problems? Could we not get a better handle on the arbitrariness of so many divisive conflicts and border issues from that vantage point where everything blurs into blues, greens, whites and browns? Couldnt we feel more protective toward this precious multi-colored marble we inhabit/trash, and want to better save it from ourselves?

My favorite author of the moment is Samantha Harvey with this slim new fiction, Orbital, which reads anything but slimly. It vibrates with so many layers of beauty that it feels more like poetry you have to put down frequently in order to fathom, spacedream, sigh, sometimes sob (I did that too). It takes us through a day amidst the nine-month stint of the four astronauts and two cosmonauts on the International Space Station, dizzily zipping around and around our globe. Despite the speed of their flight (or, more aptly and astoundingly,fall) around earththe incessant orbiting that amounts to one orbit per chapter to get us to 16 per dayits not a page-turner so much as a page-pauser. In only 200 or so pages, Harvey requires eons and our vast imaginations to take in the magnitude of all of space, all of earth, all the weather and natural formations, all humans and animals and objects, all billions of stars, all of time since the Big Bang.

The first note I wrote in the mental margins was perspective. Harvey turns every concept every which way to inspect every angle, from near and far, up and down. We feel as if we too are in the ISS, hurtling around earth at 17.5 thousand miles per hour, in what is effectively a tin can (or rather 17 connecting modules of tin can), with these six uniquely diverse crew, at 250 miles above earth. In her story, it happens to be the day a billion-dollar moon crew en route to a new (finally!) lunar landing catapults past them with their goal of traveling 250,000 miles. They are no longer the only humans between here and there. The relativity of days now when they pass 16 sunrises and sunsets in each; the arbitrariness of upright when theres nothing holding them down, even their tears floating intact past; the blurring of boundaries between countries and peoples when all they see out their windows is one continuous flow between water and land.

Is it necessarily the case that the further you get from something the more perspective you have on it? Its probably a childish thought, but he has an idea that if you could get far enough away from the earth youd be able finally to understand itto see it with your own eyes as an object, a small blue dot, a cosmic and mysterious thing. Not to understand its mystery, but to understand that it is mysterious. To see it as a mathematical swarm. To see the solidity fall away from it.

Chosen for their strength, the astronautical bones are hollowing, their muscles softening without resistance. The test mice they study are beginning to float and fly off and seem joyful in their newfound movement. The humans are the ones who are meant to be special, and yet they are also just test mice, there to measure the effects of this space experiment on themselves. Everyone and all these life-support things around them are just future dust motes, the potential of space junk debris in perpetual orbit.

Another traveller to the beyond Harvey mentionsnot bound by earths gravity and ringing it the way ISS is, but propelling out and out ad infinitumare my favorite Voyagers with their dualGolden Records, and the love story with its heartbeat quietly adding romantic rhythm to those faraway missions. So full of hope we are that well make contact with some other intelligent life form someday, so we dont have to feelso cosmically alone.

We send out the Voyager probes into interstellar space in a big-hearted fanciful spasm of hope. Two capsules from earth containing images and songs just waiting to be found inwho knowstens or hundreds of thousands of years if all goes well. Otherwise millions or billions, or not at all. Meanwhile we begin to listen. We scan the reaches for radio waves. Nothing answers. We keep on scanning for decades and decades. Nothing answers. We make wishful and fearful projections through books, films and the like about how it might look, this alien life, when it finally makes contact. But it doesnt make contact and we suspect in truth that it never will. Its not even out there, we think. Why bother waiting when theres nothing there? And now maybe humankind is in the late smash-it-all-up teenage stage of self-harm and nihilism, because we didnt ask to be alive, we didnt ask to inherit an earth to look after, and we didnt ask to be so completely unjustly darkly alone.

Our solitude and ultimate aloneness come into focus in these tight quarters, but also inescapable and haunting human connection, their ties to each other and to the invisible people hidden amidst the landscapes under clouds below. The astronauts dreams start mirroring each others, their sleeping and waking thoughts full of home and their histories as they look down and try to find their part of their countries, where their children, their spouses, their dying/dead parents might be. The solidity of the dreams vs. the surreality of their waking lives in this home away from home had me thinking: how relative are these varying states of consciousness too. Could we be dreaming when we think were awake and awake when we think were dreaming? Those moments when you awaken in the middle of a dream so vivid with someone dead or gone and ache to go back with them but you cant quite re-access that magic space again, and you weep anew with grief. Is that the real life in there and thistheout here,supposedlyis the fiction? All that we see, feel and think is just brain projection.

Therapy is a touchstone for me, it helps me sort my scrambled head, even if only to tease out what I already know that got buried. I am continually battling with my own anxiety-driven knee-jerk responses to stress (these teens!) and ignoring the wisdom that I should do better in those moments. But cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has handy tips for flipping the script, should you remember to employ them. In hot moments when your reactivity is getting away with you, stick your head in the freezer for a few seconds, for instance. Or remove yourself from the scene to find an orienting response at the border of thingsthetreeline, thewaters edge.

I regularly love the ISS for this: from the perspective here on earth to look up and sometimes actually see that very reflective contraption as it arcs over like a different, higher, faster airplane on its own unique track. To take us outside of ourselves and our petty lives for an instant and know there are however many bodies in that ship right now, along with however many study mice and plants, and whatever else velcroed down to keep it from floating off, testing the limits for us of space, time, science, themselves. In order that the next mission, and the next crews, might go further.

Theyre the specimens and the objects of research whove forged the way for their own surpassing.

Theres so much loveliness to quote from HarveysOrbital, Ill save more for next week.

In the meantime, and I recommend you do, you can sign up for alerts to know when the ISS is passing through your particular spaceview.NASAs Spot The Station feature will text or emailyou if the space station is visible near you (choose the dot nearest you on the map), by night when you can actually see it. The alerts will come for a year, then they will remind you to renew. From the FAQs:

WHEN

The Spot The Station website will only notify you of optimal sighting opportunitiesthat is, sightings that are high enough in the sky (40 degrees or more) and last long enough to give you the best view of the orbiting laboratory..

HOW OFTEN

The space station is visible because it reflects the light of the Sunthe same reason we can see the Moon. However, unlike the Moon, the space station isnt bright enough to see during the day. It can only be seen when it is dawn or dusk at your location. As such, it can range from one sighting opportunity a month to several a week, since it has to be both dark where you are, and the space station has to happen to be going overhead.

WHAT

The space station is Earths only microgravity laboratory. This football field-sized platform hosts a plethora of science and technology experiments that are continuously being conducted by crew members, or are automated. Research aboard the orbiting laboratory holds benefits for life back on Earth, as well as for future space exploration. The space station serves as a testbed for technologies and allows us to study the impacts of long-term spaceflight to humans, supporting NASAs mission to push human presence farther into space.

And to think, Ive been calling it earth, as does Harvey actually, which is more by definition just the dirt on this planet, e-a-r-t-h, how funny, when you look at and say it a few times, it becomes such a strange word for something both so big and small. But, mind you, its singular Earth, says NASA, super special with a capital E. Respect. Perspective.

I dont want to give away the ending, but it does all end.

At the brink of a continent the light is fading. The sea is flat and copper with reflected sun and the shadows of the clouds are long on the water. Asia come and gone. Australia a dark featureless shape against this last breath of light, which has now turned platinum. Everything is dimming. The earths horizon, which cracked open with light at so recent a dawn, is being erased. Darkness eats at the sharpness of its line as if the earth is dissolving and the plant turns purple and appears to blur, a watercolor washing away.

Krista Madsen is the author behind wordsmithery shop,SleepyHollow, inK.,and producer of the Home|body newsletter, which she is sharing regularlywithThe Hudson Independentreadership. You can subscribeforfreetoseeallherpostsandreceivethemdirectlyinyourinbox.

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Perspective - The Hudson Indy Westchester's Rivertowns News - - The Hudson Independent

The world recognizes that space is crucial for global security, science breakthroughs, economic growth, and global sustainability.

From the birth of the space program to today, we have much to celebrate from seeing distant galaxies through the James Webb Space Telescope to the resurgence of human spaceflight that includes the rise of a new class of private astronauts.

To ensure the United States remains a leader in space, NASA is pursuing key strategic priorities: to foster a commercial-led low Earth orbit (LEO) space economy, lead the US into cislunar space, and return Americans to the moon and on to Mars.

Time is not on our side. Without bold steps and a unified front from commercial and government partners, the US could fall behind China and other countries that already are seeking a foothold on the moon and to strengthen their presence in LEO.

At the end of July, I will be opening 2024 ASCEND, where government and commercial leaders across aerospace and other key industries will come together to strategize on how to accelerate progress toward a sustainable independent space ecosystem.

Transitioning to a Commercial-led LEO Ecosystem

In LEO, space startups are driving promising developments with in-space manufacturing and servicing. Scientists in microgravity are designing the perfect artificial retina, growing hearts and other transplant organs and tissue, and manufacturing higher performing optical fibers, among other breakthroughs that will benefit life on Earth.

Despite these inroads, the LEO space economy is still being driven largely by government use cases. That needs to change, especially as the clock ticks for the International Space Station (ISS) to complete its mission in the next five years. Given todays geopolitical tensions, the US cannot afford a gap in LEO after the ISS program ends.

The goal of the Commercial LEO Destinations program (CLD) is to deploy at least two operational commercial space stations in LEO before 2030, when the ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned. Yet the successful hand-off of LEO from government to commercial control depends on these stations commercial readiness and the maturity of the market, which must include non-NASA customers.

The biggest challenge of this public-private partnership is making the case for LEO to the commercial marketplace.

Modeling Earlier Commercial Programs

The CLD program hinges on the market viability and financial commitment of investors contributing to develop one or more space stations before the ISS deorbits.

Leveraging the success of the US commercial cargo and commercial crew programs, NASA hopes to accelerate its LEO ambitions, using the partnership model that served as a cornerstone of these earlier programs. In both cases, there were common attributes that do not apply to these new programs.

For example, the market was known and predictable, with NASA covering the vast majority of the development cost of these new systems. In contrast, NASA will invest substantially less in commercial destinations, which will largely depend on commercial customers to become a reality. Also, it is significantly more complex to build a human-scale lunar lander and lunar mobility services than constructing a space capsule.

NASA has learned many lessons from the commercial cargo and crew programs, both from a technology and how-to-do business perspective, that could be applied to the CLD program. During 2024 ASCEND, we will address these lessons.

Embracing a Public-Private Partnership Model

Clearly, the key to a strong LEO economy is partnerships. Likely investments cant lie exclusively with traditional prime contractors and the government, but with the broader spectrum of private companies and financial institutions. Bringing private sources to the LEO market will require new mindsets and cooperation, including NASA ceding its historic control over programs to allow the commercial industry to lead this new market evolution.

In recent discussions, the ASCEND community has noted that we potentially need to reduce competition among commercial space participants while delineating clear boundaries between collaboration and competition. Finding the right balance is crucial to fostering a healthy ecosystem that promotes innovation and growth while avoiding unnecessary conflicts that could hinder progress. The attendees of the ASCENDxTexas event in February further noted in their Interactive Session Detailed Summary that there is a shift in the dynamics of space technology development, with NASA no longer being the sole driver of innovation. This underscores the need for a paradigm shift toward shared practices and knowledge initiatives that benefit the entire industry, encouraging collaboration and efficiency.

Identifying and Managing Risks

Realizing a robust commercial LEO ecosystem requires investment from both space startups and larger aerospace players that tend to be more risk averse as they are accountable to stakeholders. SpaceWorks NewSpace Index tracks how publicly traded companies within the space industry are performing relative to those within key US stock indices, as well as compared with traditional space firms. The latest index finds that several new firms that went public over the last few years have only 15% of their value from the start of their public trading. At the same time, traditional aerospace firms like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which are tracked in the Traditional Space Index, are tracking with the stock market. That tells us that smaller new space players, which have taken significant risks in building a commercial LEO market, are not being rewarded.

Join the Conversation

2024 ASCEND is where some of the smartest people on the planet will gather to talk about the future of space, the challenges of leading cislunar economy development, and how best to forge a path forward. There will be multiple opportunities to engage in meaningful dialogue. We are excited to welcome thought leaders to the ASCEND stage including Matthew Weinzierl, senior associate dean and chair, MBA Program; Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and Michael Lpez-Alegra, chief astronaut, Axiom Space.

Weinzierl will join Brendan Rosseau, a national security space consultant and researcher at Harvard Business School, when they discuss what they learned in writing their new book, Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Frontier. The book is full of stories of some of the most exciting space companies and programs driving change today.

In the session, Building the Commercial Space Ecosystem, Lopez-Alegria will hold a fireside chat with BryceTech Founder and CEO Carissa Christensen, where they will share stories from the last 20 years chronicling how we got to where we are today and making some predictions for the future.

Other sessions will address Americas Future in Orbit: Commercial Space Stations and Setting the Stage for a Future Commercial Lunar Economy, including the technical and economic challenges that need to be solved to scale services and support the burgeoning lunar economy of the future.

Its a crucial moment for our industry. Regardless of whether your focus is on the moon or LEO, the opportunities in space are huge and so are the stakes for our global competitiveness and security if we dont get it right. 2024 ASCEND is where well address the tough questions. We hope to see you there.

About the Author

Julie Van Kleeck serves as ASCEND executive producer at AIAA. She retired from Aerojet Rocketdyne in 2019 as the vice president of the Advanced Space and Launch Business Unit.

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Commercialization is Key to Continued US Space Leadership - SpaceNews

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft aboard is rolled to the launch pad on Thursday ahead of the NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test.

NASA/Getty Images

Updated June 01, 2024 at 13:13 PM ET

A planned launch of Boeing's Starliner space capsule was scrubbed on Saturday just minutes ahead of its scheduled liftoff time.

With 3:50 left in the countdown, the rockets computer initiated a hold. The spacecraft needs to launch at a precise moment to catch up with the station, meaning the mission will have to wait at least another day to launch.

NASA said the scrub was due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count and that teams were working to understand the cause.

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The space capsule was scheduled to carry two NASA astronauts from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a 25-hour flight to the International Space Station. The planned mission was the first time the commercially built capsule was to carry humans.

NASA has not yet announced if a launch attempt will happen on Sunday.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were planning to take Starliner on its maiden flight, putting the vehicle through its paces ahead of operational missions for NASA. After the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, NASA partnered with two commercial companies Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.

Saturdays scrub comes roughly a month after the Starliner was originally supposed to fly to the station, and that launch was already years behind schedule.

Earlier, in a twist familiar to many air travelers here on Earth, NASA announced that the astronauts luggage was getting left behind. The lost luggage isnt Boeings fault. The space stations urine recycling system broke earlier this week and NASA had to make room to send up a new pump.

We ended up pulling off two crew suitcases, those have clothes on them, said Dana Weigel, the manager of NASAs International Space Station Program, during a press briefing on Friday.

Weigel said theres spare clothes and hygiene items aboard the space station, which the crew could use during their stay.

Heres what else to know about the now-scrubbed launch.

In 2014, NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2-billion-dollar contract to build Starliner as a vehicle to carry astronauts on routine missions to the International Space Station.

The Starliner program has since fallen far behind schedule and gone over budget. Boeing has estimated the program has cost the company over $1 billion in losses.

At the same time NASA awarded the Boeing contract, it gave SpaceX $2.6 billion to develop its Dragon capsule. That spacecraft conducted its crewed test flight in 2020, and now regularly carries astronauts to the station.

Saturdays scrub is not the first delay for the Starliner program.

The Starliner failed to reach the I.S.S. during its first mission in 2019. The cause was an incorrectly set onboard clock, which caused a computer to fire the capsules engines too early. The spacecraft managed to reach the I.S.S. during its second test flight in 2022, despite the failure of some thrusters to work as planned.

Boeing delayed Starliners first crewed flight last year, after company officials realized that adhesive tape used on hundreds of yards of wiring was potentially flammable, and the capsules three parachutes were connected with lines that appeared to be weaker than expected.

Its launch attempt on May 6 was called off due to a stuck valve on the rocket launching Starliner. That valve was replaced, but engineers also discovered a small helium leak in one of Starliners thrusters.

The leak is probably due to a faulty seal, though the engineers arent totally sure. Still, after weeks of extensive analysis they said that Starliner could fly safely even with the leak.

If Starliner is able to eventually launch successfully, it will pave the way for more Starliner flights, which will give NASA two independent private spacecraft that can carry astronauts to the space station.

On their mission, Wilmore and Williams were planning to test key systems of Starliner as it docks with the space station, including life support and communication. While the spacecraft can essentially fly itself, the duo were to test out manual controls of the vehicle as it approached the orbiting outpost.

The crew had planned to spend about a week on the station with a scheduled landing under a canopy of parachutes as early as June 10 in Willcox, Ariz. capping off a 10 day mission. Teams at NASA and Boeing were to comb through the data from this flight before certifying the vehicle for operational missions. NASA hopes to split astronaut flights between Boeing and SpaceX, with trips to the ISS happening about every six months.

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The launch of Boeing's crewed Starliner space capsule is called off yet again - MPR News

Boeings first spacecraft to carry a human crew is set to launch on Saturday. If all goes as planned, the mission will bring astronauts to the International Space Station and prove to NASA that Boeing can be a reliable transportation partner.

Its been a long journey to get to this point: NASA has rescheduled the launch multiple times this month amid technical concerns. That follows years of delays and costs running $1 billion over budget.

Boeings brand has taken hits from several troubling incidents. On Saturday, the company plans to launch a crewed spaceflight to prove it can successfully transport astronauts to the space station.

Safely transporting astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams is a crucial priority. A successful launch of the Starliner capsule would also provide NASA with a second U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station.

Boeing could use a public relations win right now after astring of negative newsabout its commercial aviation business.

Boeing and NASA will learn from this test flight, says Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, who notes a successful launch would build trust with our customers and our employees.

Boeings first spacecraft to carry a human crew is set to launch Saturday from Florida. If all goes as planned, the mission will bring astronauts to the International Space Station and prove to NASA that Boeing can be a reliable transportation partner.

The Starliner capsule is scheduled to take off as soon as 12:25 p.m. EDT on June 1. Its been a long journey to get to this point: NASA has rescheduled the launch five times this month amid technical concerns. That follows years of delays and costs running $1 billion over budget.

Astronauts Barry Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are expected to test the spacecrafts systems while at the space station for about seven days, before landing in the southwestern United States.

Boeings brand has taken hits from several troubling incidents. On Saturday, the company plans to launch a crewed spaceflight to prove it can successfully transport astronauts to the space station.

A successful launch would be a milestone moment for Boeing and help solidify a new era of commercial space flight. The Starliner is the second of two contracts NASA awarded to private companies to shuttle astronauts to the space station.

Safely transporting Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams is a crucial priority. A successful launch would also provide NASA with a second U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station.

It was really important for the nation to have a strategy where we would have multiple companies with the capability to take humans to outer space, says Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

Starliner also has some distinct capabilities such as allowing astronauts to maneuver the capsule as if they were flying an airplane, Ms. Sears says. There are certain situations where we really want the astronauts to be able to take control if they need to, so that's a unique feature.

SpaceXs Crew Dragon has launched 50 people in 13 flights to the space station since 2020, while Boeings endeavor has been fraught with challenges.

Boeing completed a successful test of an uncrewed Starliner mission to the space station in 2022. Once the Starliner completes this crewed flight, NASA intends to use the craft for regular missions carrying four astronauts at a time to the space station.

The Starliner launch aims tolessenNASAs dependence on Russia for low-orbit spaceflight. Since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, it has used Russian shuttles to send American astronauts to the space station, most recently with American Tracy Dyson joining a Belarusian and a Russian cosmonaut in a March 2024 launch. Although the U.S. and Russia currently cooperate when it comes to spaceflight, the tense political situation between the two powers has upped the urgency of ending Americas reliance on the Russian space program.

Having two reliable spacecraft to alternate between would allow the U.S. to maintain a consistent human presence on the space station, which has been operated by NASA and its international partners since 1998.

You cant lead and you cant shape the rules if you dont show up. So human spaceflight is about showing up in a region that were already really dependent on but we dont control. And so we want to shape the rules of that environment, says Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams prepare to board Boeing's Starliner capsule at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, May 6, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before the mission was delayed.

NASA has been focusing on its Commercial Crew Program since retiring its space shuttle fleet in 2011. Its goal is to develop safe and cost-effective human transportation to the space station through partnerships with private companies. NASA hopes to let these companies run shuttle missions while it concentrates on deep-space endeavors.

The real question is, what comes after the space station? says Mr. Pace. He points out that there have been a number of proposals for building small commercial space stations in low Earth orbit that could assist with technology development or space tourism.

NASA plans to retire the space station in 2030 by crashing it into the ocean. What an international space station might look like in the future is unclear, with three companies Axiom Space, Voyager Space, and Blue Origin vying to win a NASA partnership.

I think it is a natural advancement of our space program. It saves the taxpayers a lot of dollars because these companies have the incentive to innovate and lower costs so they can bring in additional customers, says Lori Garver, a former NASA deputy administrator and a senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center.

Boeing could use a public relations win right now after a string of negative news about its commercial aviation business. Boeing is facing intense public scrutiny after several issues with its 737 jets, including a panel blowing off a January Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff.

Landing the Starliner capsule safely back on Earth would be the successful completion of a multibillion-dollar and yearslong project. The first two private contracts were awarded to Boeing and SpaceX in 2014, for $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.

SpaceX experienced a handful of failures prior to its successful crewed launch, and it also dealt with yearslong delays and budget overruns. Most recently, the Starliner launch was grounded May 6 about two hours before takeoff due to a malfunctioning valve on the Atlas V rocket that carries the capsule to space. A second launch attempt scheduled for May 17 was called off when a small helium leak was found in the Starliner propulsion system.

Boeing and NASA will learn from this test flight, says Ms. Sears, who notes a successful launch would build trust with our customers and our employees.

Finding problems before launching is part of being diligent, says Mr. Pace. No one likes the delays, but its simply a part of the process of doing it right, says Mr. Pace. He notes the cost of running Boeings space program may ultimately prove more important to the company than the delays.

There is certainly a question as to whether they will continue the program after they fulfill their commitments to NASA because it has been a big, expensive hit to the company, he says. I think they can overcome reputational issues. I think they can overcome and solve their technical problems, but you know, finances are finances.

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Boeing has seen a tide of bad headlines. It's hoping for a reset with space launch. - The Christian Science Monitor