After an exhaustive review of suspect transistors in NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, NASA managers have cleared the probe for launch next month as planned on a $5.2 billion mission to find out if a suspected sub-surface ocean on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is a habitable environment. The transistor issue cropped up in May, raising fears the scope of the Clipper’s …
Read More »
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket vaulted into space early Tuesday, boosting billionaire Jared Isaacman and three crewmates into orbit for a daring attempt to set a post-Apollo astronaut altitude record and to carry out the first non-government spacewalk. Wearing air-cooled SpaceX-designed suits and connected to their Crew Dragon spacecraft by umbilicals and safety tethers, Isaacman and SpaceX crew trainer Sarah …
Read More »
NASA has bumped two female astronauts, including the commander, from the next SpaceX crew rotation flight to the International Space Station, freeing up two seats to give the agency’s Starliner astronauts a ride home next February. Rookie Crew 9 commander Zena Cardman and veteran Stephanie Wilson will remain behind when the Crew Dragon ferry ship takes off from pad 40 …
Read More »
Blue Origin launched six passengers, including a NASA-sponsored researcher and the youngest woman to fly in space, on a sub-orbital trip out of the lower atmosphere Thursday in the company’s eighth crewed spaceflight. University of Florida researcher Rob Ferl, philanthropist Nicolina Elrick, adventurer Eugene Grin, Vanderbilt University cardiologist Elman Jahangir, American-Israeli entrepreneur Ephraim Rabin and University of North Carolina senior …
Read More »
The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets pending an investigation to determine what caused a first-stage booster to crash onto a landing barge early Wednesday after helping launch another batch of Starlink internet satellites. After standing down from the piloted Polaris Dawn launch late Tuesday because of an unfavorable long-range forecast, SpaceX pressed ahead with the first …
Read More »
After standing down from the piloted Polaris Dawn launch late Tuesday, SpaceX shifted gears and pressed ahead with plans for back-to-back launches of Starlink internet satellites early Wednesday, one from Florida and the other from California. But the second flight was called off after the first stage used in the Florida launch toppled into the Atlantic Ocean and broke apart …
Read More »