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Boeing's Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission to the International Space Station is poised to launch at 6:54 p.m. EDT (2254 GMT) on Thursday (May 19) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This second uncrewed test mission of the company's Starliner capsule serves as a critical step in NASA's certification of the spacecraft for human spaceflight, following the incomplete original OFT mission in December 2019 and valve problems that delayed OFT-2's liftoff from summer 2021 until now.

OFT-2 will carry more than 500 pounds (225 kilograms) of cargo to the orbital laboratory, at least 440 pounds (200 kg) of which consists of food and supplies for the station's current crew. The remaining payloads were contributed by Boeing and include, among other flight memorabilia, keepsakes such as flags and pins commemorating the United States' historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

In photos: Boeing's Starliner OFT-2 mission in picturesLive updates: Starliner's OFT-2 mission

"Closing representation gaps in our company and our industry is a priority for Boeing, and inspiring diverse students to pursue careers in aerospace is an important part of that effort," Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun said in a statement last year.

Taking its second ride aboard Starliner will also be a flight test dummy affectionately named Rosie the Rocketeer. Rosie rode aboard the first OFT and provided engineers data about G-force exertion on the body during launch. For this flight, according to a Boeing statement, the same sensors used for Rosie on OFT-1 will be used to measure the strain on the vehicle's four seats directly. (Rosie's main function on OFT-2 will be to provide ballast, mission team members have said.)

Robotic cargo launches to the space station are common, occurring every few months with a rotation of Russian Progress vessels and two private American vehicles Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft and SpaceX's Dragon capsule. These freighters ferry large cargo loads to the ISS, and the reusable Dragon brings gear back down as well. (Progress and Cygnus burn up in Earth's atmosphere when their time at the ISS is done.)

Speaking to the advantages of NASA's commercial crew program at a briefing in the runup to the first planned OFT-2 launch attempt last year, NASA's deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program, Jennifer Buchli, pointed out the advantages of being able to transport a larger number of astronauts and science gear at a faster rate, something that Starliner could help bring about:

"Having more crew on orbit and more cargo back and forth from ISS means we can do more science," Buchli said. "We really do a wide variety of experiments in everything from human research to fluid physics, to technology demonstrations, life sciences, as well as education."

To date, NASA has completed over 3,000 experiments on the orbital lab, which has hosted rotating astronaut crews continuously since late 2000. These experiments, varying in their size and composition, make up a portion of the cargo regularly transported to, and sometimes back from, the International Space Station.

International Space Station: Facts, history and tracking

However, it does not appear that Starliner will be transporting much meaningful science gear for the orbiting lab on the coming mission. According to NASA, OFT-2's cargo includes "food and crew preference items for the current expedition crewmembers on station and provisions, like clothes and sleeping bags, for CFT astronauts." (CFT stands for "Crew Flight Test," the first Starliner astronaut mission, which Boeing and NASA plan to launch late this year if all goes well with OFT-2.)

For OFT-2, the science is primarily the spacecraft itself (and, to a lesser extent, Rosie the Rocketeer). Testing whether or not Starliner is ready for astronauts is crucial before strapping them onboard for a crewed flight.

OFT-2 aims to demonstrate that Starliner can rendezvous and dock with the space station, a task it failed to accomplish during the original OFT after suffering a number of software glitches. To do this, the vehicle will use an instrument known as the Vision-based Electro-optical Sensor Tracking Assembly, or VESTA.

Speaking on NASA's "Houston, We Have a Podcast," Amy Comeau, project engineer for the Boeing Starliner chief engineer's office, highlighted VESTA as the "main focus" of OFT-2's goal to dock with the station. She described VESTA's camera suite, which was designed to differentiate visual features of the space station in the same way a human would:

"The system uses visual cues on space station such as the solar panels, stickers, the modules, etc., and it also uses star tracker information so that it can interpret, [in] real time, the precise location of Starliner's position relative to the International Space Station's position. And so then this information is actually fed into our flight computers that ultimately drive the spacecraft into the appropriate docking port."

In a May 11 press conference following Starliner's successful flight readiness review, NASA's Deputy Chief Flight Director Emily Nelson remarked that VESTA is "one of the most important, and really kind of the coolest, sensors they've got on [the] spacecraft."

According to Nelson, once flight operators confirm VESTA is "seeing the space station correctly and identifying where it ought to go," Starliner will begin a number of demonstration maneuvers. "The spacecraft will stop to demonstrate that if we tell it to stop, it will in fact stop. It'll automatically retreat some, to demonstrate that we have that retreat capability. And then we'll press into the final rendezvous and docking," Nelson said.

Starliner will remain docked to the ISS for five to eight days before parachuting back to Earth somewhere in the western U.S., according to NASA. When it returns, it will carry with it nearly 600 pounds (270 kg) of cargo, including three of the station's dozen or so NORS ("Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System") tanks.

NORS tanks provide atmospheric gases to the space station. These tanks are often returned on cargo missions, and most recently one accompanied the crew of the pioneering private Ax-1 mission back to Earth in their SpaceX Dragon capsule last month. However, OFT-2 will be the first mission to return three NORS tanks at one time, Joel Montalbano, manager for NASA's ISS program, said in the May 11 briefing.

During an OFT-2 overview press conference on May 3, Montalbano summed up Starliner's cargo, saying, "the majority of the cargo going up is going to be food, and so about a little over 450, 460 pounds [204 to 209 kg] And then, coming back, we'll be bringing home some of the NORS tanks, the nitrogen oxygen recharge tanks that we have on board. They are used, and so we'll return them to the ground, refurb them and then fly those again. And so that's the big highlights. We're also flying up some small vehicle hardware, some EVA spacewalk supply hardware as well."

The majority of Boeing's cargo will be returning to Earth with Starliner at the end of OFT-2 as well. In addition to the flags and pins representing the legacy of HBCUs, other space-flown memorabilia on OFT-2 include Rosie the Riveter coins commemorating women in the aerospace industry during World War II, seeds from five different species of trees to echo the "moon tree" effort first taken on by Apollo astronaut Stu Roosa in 1971, and also the original company ID card issued to Boeing founder Bill Boeing, which carries his signature.

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The science and cargo of Boeing's OFT-2 Starliner test flight to space station - Space.com

The crew of private astronauts on Axiom Spaces Ax-1 mission says they were entirely too busy while on the International Space Station. So busy, in fact, it interrupted the other astronauts on the ISS with them.

A SpaceNews report published yesterday tells us what Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, Michael Lpez-Alegra and Eytan Stibbe thought about their trip to the ISS, because the team attended a press conference to answer media questions. The trip was initially supposed to take eight days but was extended to 15 because of weather conditions on Earth. The extra time was helpful, Axioms paying customers said, but the crew still felt rushed.

Our timeline was very aggressive, especially early in the mission, Lpez-Alegra, who used to be a NASA astronaut and commanded the Axiom mission, told SpaceNews. The pace was frenetic in the beginning.

Although the private astronauts paid more than $50 million each for the trip, it was definitely a working vacation. Some of the crews experiments included testing self-assembling robot tech, working with stem cells and creating holograms with Microsoft HoloLens. Michael Suffredini, president and chief executive of Axiom Space, said Axiom will better integrate future missions what with the other astronauts are already doing so nobody is disrupted. Suffredini wants future flights to last longer, too up to 60 days, according to SpaceNews. Its possible the companys changes could make missions less jam-packed and lead to more time to stop and smell the solar systems roses.

I think we were so focused on research and outreach in the first 8 or 10 days on orbit that we needed the extra time to complete the experience by having time to look out the window, to make contact with friends and family, to just enjoy the sensation, Lpez-Alegra told the outlet.

Its easy to forget that astronauts do actual work and dont just float around for fun. Many are tasked with important scientific research on their missions.

They may not exactly be punching a time clock, but it seems a healthy work-life balance is important even when the office isnt on Earth.

More on life on board the ISS: Please Enjoy This Cozy Video of an Astronaut Getting Ready to Slumber

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Whiny Space Tourists Say They Were Too Busy on the Space Station - Futurism

MIT's new self-rearranging space station has been revealed. However, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that this new space tech is not yet under development.

The new TESSERAE (Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments) project aims to build a new space station that can rearrange or readjust itself.

If this is true, then astronauts will have a better artificial environment as their study the universe.

"The future of human habitation in space lies in self-assembling, adaptive, and reconfigurable structures," said MIT via its official blog post.

According to Republic World's latest report, astronauts are having a hard time in the International Space Station. Although ISS (the only orbiting space lab outside Earth) is quite advanced, the interior is still uncomfortable.

Also Read:China's Tianwen-1 Mission Celebrates Its First Year on Mars, Zhurong Preps for Winter

With many wires and bulky electronics inside ISS, astronauts have limited spaces to move around to and from. This is what TESSERAE plans to solve.

MIT explained that they are still under a multi-year research effort to further observe, test, characterize, and prototype their new TESSERAE tiles.

Recently, a TESSERAE tile was already tested at the ISS. It was observed by Axiom-1 crewmembers. These include Michael Lopez-Alegria, the Axiom Space VP.

Imagine a room that can rearrange itself, with the walls moving around the room automatically adjusting.

This is how exactly each TESSERAE tile works. MIT explained that its new space tech was designed to have a self-assembling feature.

In the first test of MIT, there were 20 hexagonal tiles and 12 pentagonal tiles.

Each of these TESSERAE prototype included a responsive sensing and control code for bonding diagnosis, a rigid outer shell, an on-board power harvesting, and power management system, and electro-permanent magnets for dynamically controllable bonding actuation.

If you want to see further details about the new TESSERAE project, you can visit this link.

Recently, the U.S. military's nuclear rocket is expected to observe the Earth-moon space region.

On the other hand, SpaceX's commercial spacewalk is now being prepared as Polaris Dawn is about to happen.

For more news updates about MIT's TESSERAE and other similar space innovations, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article:ISS Astronaut Captures Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse from Space!

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MIT's New Self-Rearranging Space Station Revealed; Will TESSERAE Be Better Than ISS? - Tech Times

The aging shuttle-era spacesuits aboard the International Space Station have been declared "no-go" for operational, normally planned spacewalks, pending analysis to determine what led to excess water getting into an astronaut's helmet during a March excursion, officials confirmed Tuesday.

But the bulky spacesuits "extra-vehicular mobility units," or EMUs can still be used for emergency repairs or to resolve other unexpected issues if agency managers agree after assessing the overall risk.

"Until we understand better what the causal factors might have been during the last EVA with our EMU, we are no-go for nominal EVA (spacewalk)," said Dana Weigel, deputy manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "So we won't do a planned EVA until we've had a chance to really address and rule out major system failure modes."

Water intrusion has been a source of concern ever since a July 2013 spacewalk in which European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet flooded with water, a frightening, potentially life-threatening malfunction that forced an early end to the excursion.

Parmitano was not injured, but after the spacewalk NASA said he reported "impaired visibility and breathing with water covering his eyes, nose and ears." The astronaut's "calm demeanor in the face of his helmet filling with water possibly saved his life."

The "high-visibility close call" triggered a major investigation to pin down the source of the leakage. A detailed inspection revealed clogs in a component that inadvertently diverted water into a vent line that allowed intrusion into the helmet.

While working to resolve suit servicing to prevent such clogs in the future, NASA implemented two steps to help a spacewalker make it back to the station's airlock in a similar emergency.

A "helmet absorption pad," or HAP, is now placed at the back of the helmet to soak up any excess water that might make its way into the headpiece and a separate straw-like breathing tube was added to provide an unobstructed supply of air if needed. Astronauts now report the status of their HAPs throughout a spacewalk.

More recently, Weigel said, another absorbent pad has been added to form a dam of sorts, impeding the movement of any water toward the front of the helmet.

There have been no serious instances of water intrusion since Parmitano's spacewalk, but at the end of the most recent EVA on March 23, astronaut Kayla Barron, helping German astronaut Matthias Maurer out of his spacesuit, found water inside the helmet.

"It's a little bit difficult to judge the volume because it's spread across the front of his visor," Barron said. "But I think we should accelerate the steps to get him out of his suit here."

Once the helmet was off, the crew estimated up to 50 percent of the visor was coated with a thin film of water and that the absorption pad at the back of the helmet was damp.

"The HAP is a little bit moist, but I think it would have been difficult to detect through a comm(unication) cap," Barron reported. "Roughly, maybe an eight- to 10-inch diameter circle, a thin film of water on the helmet. And there is water in his vent port at the back of his neck ring."

NASA plans to send Maurer's EMU back to Earth in July aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship for an engineering analysis.

Four spacewalks to continue upgrading the station's solar power system had been tentatively planned over the rest of the year, two in August and two in November, but such EVAs are now on hold pending analysis of Maurer's suit.

"So far, we haven't found anything unusual," Weigel said of inspections aboard the space station. "We're looking for any obvious signs of contamination or fouling or something else that might have gotten into our system. We're not seeing that yet."

While planned spacewalks are on hold, she said a contingency EVA could be approved after review and a "risk-versus-risk" assessment.

"Depending upon what has failed and what the risk is to the spacecraft and to the mission overall, we'll look at where we are with the investigation, where we are with the additional mitigations that we're putting in place and we'll specifically make a call based on the contingency and where we are at the given moment," she said.

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia."

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Spacesuits aboard station declared a "no-go" pending analysis of recent helmet water leak - CBS News

Maybe it was written in the stars but, the day after Sam Ryder's Eurovision entry rocketed the UK into the nosebleed heights of second place with his song "Space Man", the Royal Albert Hall debuted the extraterrestrial spectacular Space Station Earth.

Seven years in the making, this show is the brainchild of International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Tim Peake and Layer Cake composer Ilan Eshkeri in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). Peake kickstarted its creation before he went into orbit: unimpressed with how the ISS experience was portrayed, he asked the British musician for permission to use some of the latter's work as part of a video he planned to film while aboard the ISS.

From there, things snowballed. As discussed in a 45-minute pre-show interview between the two men, Eshkeri was soon doing more than signing a release slip, taking up the ESA's offer to see a live rocket launch and experience weightlessness on a micro-gravity parabolic flight (infamously known as the "vomit comet"). He then created Space Station Earth's hour-long musical score which, when backed by the eye-popping images recorded from the ISS and shown on three large screens behind the musicians, create a dazzling son et lumire-style performance reminiscent of an arena rock gig - albeit one with large brass and string sections.

This is obviously a work of love for Eshkeri. The pre-show music draws heavy on themes from Seventies spacefaring TV shows and films of his childhood including Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Blake's 7, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Space: 1999. His passion for the subject at hand is amply demonstrated in the powerful way his score evokes the human journey up to liftoff, building up to a crescendo as the craft leaves the ground and then reaches its destination. Peake speaks extensively of the "cognitive shift" that returning astronauts feel and the ESA visuals combined with Eshkeri's music bring to vivid life just how it must feel to look down upon a familiar green-and-blue planet framed by the blackest-black of space and the whitest-white of a sun not filtered through an atmosphere.

Peake makes a number of comparisons between the self-sustaining ISS ("there are no passengers") and Earth, not least the impact of climate change and other threats to "our only sanctuary in the vast universe we live in". The footage shows in poignant moments life aboard the station as we see the crew playing with stray water bubbles, exercising, arranging floating fruit in mid-air, working on experiments and going on a space walk. Given a choice, Peake says he would prefer to live in zero-gravity and it is easy to see why.

This is a unique show which is beautifully executed. At an hour long, the soul-stirring music is loud and soulful in the right places and timed just right with no noticeable filler. Within the cavernous Royal Albert Hall, Space Station Earth loses some of its visual effect unless you're sat near the stage but its hard to deny the power of what Peake and Eshkeri have created.

Ryder sang that "If I was an astronaut, I'd have a bird's eye view/In my floating castle, I'd rub shoulders with the stars" and this show may just be the closest any of us will get to that.

Space Station Earth is currently on tour.

Image: ESA, NASA and Thomas Pesquet

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BWW Review: SPACE STATION EARTH, Royal Albert Hall - Broadway World

An out-of-this-world celebration is set for tomorrow to mark the 75th anniversary of the classic bedtime story, "Goodnight Moon," by Margaret Wise Brown.

A "Read Along, Draw Along" will stream on Facebook Live with astronauts from the International Space Station.

The event, supported by Crayola, NASA and HarperCollins Children's Books, will mark the first time "Goodnight Moon" has been read aloud from space.

First published in 1947, the book sells about 800,000 copies annually and has reached total sales of close to 50 million. It's been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Catalan, Hebrew, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Korean, Hmong, and German.

Children, families and teachers will be able to watch a demonstration of how to create moonlit sky scenes, inspired by Clement Hurd's illustrations in the book. Everyone who tunes in from Earth can follow along as the book is read by astronauts in space, then create their own unique art.

An "Ask an Astronaut" Q&A will follow with two NASA astronauts answering questions submitted by children from across the country.

The event will also feature NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Crayola Education Manager James Wells. After the live event, the video will be available to watch anytime, on-demand.

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Astronauts on space station to mark 75 years of 'Goodnight Moon' - iHeart

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STORY: The 5th century BC marble temple stands on a cliff over the coast at Cape Sounion, some 70 kilometers south of Athens. Several spectators stood around the temple to watch the moon rise.The Old Farmers Almanac, which publishes Native American names for full moons, calls this months full moon the flower moon, as May is known as a month when flowers bloom in abundance. This name was given to the moon by the Algonquin tribes, an indigenous people of North America. The Cree gave it several names as well, related to Spring, such as the Budding Moon, or Egg Laying Moon.This full moon is a supermoon, according to the almanac, and coincides with a total lunar eclipse, highly visible in the western hemisphere, which will turn the moon a reddish-brown. NASA calls Mays full moon a marginal supermoon. Supermoons are full moons whose orbit is closest to the Earth, making them appear larger and brighter.

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UCLA grad Jessica Watkins live from the International Space Station - Yahoo News

HOUSTON, May 11, 2022 (Axiom Space PR) The future of low-Earth orbit and human spaceflight in Space City, has a new base of operations as Axiom Space breaks ground on a new state-of-the-art headquarters in Houston.

On Wednesday, May 11, commercial space leader Axiom Space and the City of Houston celebrated groundbreaking at the companys new, long-term headquarters at Ellington Airport, the site of the Houston Spaceport. There, Axiom Space which is developing Axiom Station, the worlds first commercial space station will construct a campus containing employee offices, astronaut training, and mission control facilities, engineering development and testing labs, and a high bay production facility to house Axioms space station modules under construction.

From this Axiom Space headquarters campus, we will continue the progress in space that will revolutionize life back home, Axiom Space President & CEO Michael Suffredini said. We are proud to be an anchor tenant of the Houston Spaceport and ensure the future of human spaceflight and the space economy is centered in the city where it all began.

Houstons leadership in the Apollo, Space Shuttle, and ISS programs earned its title as Space City, the home of human spaceflight.

Now Axiom Space is adding a new accolade to Space City, for the first time in the citys history it will be home to the development and construction of human-rated spacecraft thanks to Axiom Stations modules, which will be outfitted and assembled at Axioms facility at the Spaceport.

These are historically exciting times for us all. As the city that helped put men on the moon, Houston continues to lead the way in technology and innovation, said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. Axiom Space has set itself apart from others in the private space industry. Our city Space City couldnt be prouder for our own Houston Spaceport to serve as home base for such momentous commercial and academic advancement.

Axiom Space has partnered with Jacobs, Turner Construction Company, Savills, and Griffin Partners to expand the companys headquarters at Houston Spaceport. Jacobs, in close collaboration with Axiom Space, designed the assembly, integration, and testing facility. Axiom Space has contracted with Turner for site construction. Savills real estate firm represented Axiom Space in the lease negotiations, and Griffin Partners is providing development management services for the project.

The development of Axiom Spaces Spaceport property will be developed in two phases. Phase I includes 106,000 square feet of assembly integration and test facilities and aims to be completed by April 2023. The second phase will add facilities for labs, mission operations and training, aircraft operations, and office space.

This is Axiom Spaces latest accomplishment as it grows the commercial space industry and expands access to low-Earth orbit to a broader international community. Axiom Space recently welcomed home the crew of Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) after successfully completing the first all-private astronaut mission to the ISS, a precursor mission to Axiom Station. The company has also signed agreements with several nations including Italy, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fly on future space missions.

Axiom Space was founded in Houston in 2016 by Michael Suffredini NASAs ISS Program Manager from 2005 to 2015 and space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian to build the worlds first commercial space station and develop commercial space infrastructure that will drive a thriving low-Earth orbit economy. The company currently employs more than 400 people, the majority of which work at its current Houston facilities and has plans to grow the number to 600 by the end of 2022 and 1,000 by 2025.

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Axiom Space Breaks Ground on New Headquarters and Space Station Production Facility at Houston Spaceport Parabolic Arc - Parabolic Arc