All posts tagged "Space"

Two U.S. astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner will have to return home with rival SpaceX, NASA said Saturday.

“NASA has decided that Butch and Suni will return with Crew-9 next February, and that Starliner will return uncrewed,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told reporters.

The return of Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams has been delayed by thruster malfunctions of the Boeing spacecraft....

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On a blustery day in early March, the who’s who of methane research gathered at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara, California. Dozens of people crammed into a NASA mission control center. Others watched from cars pulled alongside roads just outside the sprawling facility. Many more followed a livestream. They came from across the country to witness the launch of an oven-sized satellite capable of detecting the potent planet-warming gas from space.

The amount of methane, the primary component in natural gas, in the atmosphere has been rising steadily over the last few decades, reaching nearly three times as much as preindustrial times. About a third of methane emissions in the United States occur during the extraction of fossil fuels as the gas seeps from wellheads, pipelines, and other equipment. The rest come from agricultural operations, landfills, coal mining, and other sources. Some of these leaks are large enough to be seen from orbit. Others are miniscule, yet contribute to a growing problem....

The NASA astronaut knocks loudly three times on a what appears to be a nondescript door, and calls cheerfully: “You ready to come out?”

The reply is inaudible, but beneath his mask he appears to be grinning as he yanks the door open — and four scientists who have spent a year away from all other human contact, simulating a mission to Mars, spill out to cheers and applause.

Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and team leader Kelly Haston have spent the past 378 days sealed inside the “Martian” habitat in Houston, Texas, part of NASA’s research into what it will take to put humans on the Red Planet....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing on Wednesday launched its very first astronauts bound for the International Space Station aboard a Starliner capsule, which joins a select club of spacecraft to carry humans beyond Earth.

The third time turned out to be the charm for the aerospace giant, after two previous bids to fly were aborted with the crew strapped in and ready to go.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both of whom have two previous spaceflights under their belts, blasted off at 10:52 am (1452 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida....

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe successfully landed on the far side of the Moon to collect samples, state news agency Xinhua reported Sunday — the latest leap for Beijing’s decades-old space programme.

The Chang’e-6 set down in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, Xinhua said, citing the China National Space Administration.

It marks the first time that samples will be collected from the rarely explored area of the Moon, according to the agency....

Cape Canaveral (AFP) - The first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spaceship was dramatically called off Saturday with just under four minutes left on the launch countdown clock, for reasons that aren't yet clear.

It was the second time the test mission to the International Space Station was scrubbed with the astronauts strapped in and ready to lift off, and yet another setback for the troubled program, which has already faced years of delays and safety scares.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are waiting to be safely removed from the capsule. Mission commander Wilmore had earlier given a short but rousing speech telling tens of thousands of people tuning into the live feed that "It's a great day to be proud of your nation."...