SPACE
SpaceX’s Starship rocket survives return to Earth, achieves landing test on fourth attempt
JOEY ROULETTE AND STEVE GORMAN
REUTERS
SpaceX's Starship rocket launches from the company's Boca Chica launchpad near Brownsville, Tex., in this handout picture obtained on June 6.SPACEX/REUTERS
Boeing’s new Starliner capsule and its inaugural two-member NASA crew neared final approach to the International Space Station for docking on Thursday, a key test in proving the vessel’s flight-worthiness and sharpening Boeing’s competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The spacecraft, roughly 200 meters (220 yards) away from the space station, missed an initial time window for docking with the orbital laboratory as mission managers in Houston investigated the failure of some spacecraft thrusters used for precise manoeuvring.
Starliner will conduct some thruster tests before its next attempt to approach the space station in a window that opens at 1:33 p.m. EDT (1733 GMT).
The CST-100 Starliner, with veteran astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams aboard, was due to arrive at the orbiting platform after a flight of roughly 25 hours following its launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The reusable gumdrop-shaped capsule, dubbed “Calypso” by its crew, was lofted into space on Wednesday atop an Atlas V rocket furnished and flown by Boeing-Lockheed Martin’s United Launch Alliance joint venture.
It had originally been scheduled to autonomously dock with the ISS while both are orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth at approximately 12:15 p.m. ET (1615 GMT).
The spacecraft’s approach to the ISS was being livestreamed on a NASA webcast, which showed video images of the capsule captured by a camera aboard the space station.
Once securely coupled to the space laboratory, Wilmore and Williams would conduct a series of standard procedures, such as checking for airlock leaks and pressurizing the passage between the capsule and the ISS, before opening the entry hatches.
They would be welcomed aboard by the outpost’s current seven resident crew members: four fellow U.S. astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts.
Plans call for Wilmore and Williams to remain aboard the station for about eight days, then depart on a return flight that will take Starliner on a fiery re-entry back through Earth’s atmosphere and end with a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the U.S. Desert Southwest, a first for a crewed NASA mission.
On its voyage to the ISS, helium leaks were detected on Starliner’s propulsion system, knocking out some of the 28 thrusters used by the capsule to manoeuvre in space. The astronauts remain safe, and the spacecraft has backup thrusters to compensate for the loss, according to NASA and Boeing.
Starliner uses helium to add pressure to the propellant for its thrusters. NASA and Boeing did not specify the positions of the downed thrusters or how quickly helium was leaking.
NASA mission managers early on Thursday morning gave Boeing the green light to proceed to rendezvous.
The Starliner launch on Wednesday followed years of technical problems, various delays and a first successful 2022 test mission to the orbital laboratory without astronauts aboard.
Last-minute glitches had nixed the Starliner’s first two crewed launch attempts, including a helium leak found on the capsule’s propulsion system that officials later determined was not serious enough to warrant a mechanical fix.
NASA and Boeing officials at the time pointed to a faulty seal on one thruster component that was failing to keep the helium inside.
Boeing built Starliner under contract with NASA to compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which since 2020 has been the U.S. space agency’s only vehicle for sending ISS crew members to orbit from American soil. The current mission marks Starliner’s first test flight with astronauts aboard, a requirement before NASA can certify the capsule for routine astronaut missions.
Selected as crew for the pivotal flight were two NASA veterans who have previously logged 500 days in space between them: Wilmore, 61, a retired Navy captain and fighter pilot, and Williams, 58, a former Navy helicopter test pilot with experience flying more than 30 different aircraft.
Getting Starliner to this point has been a fraught process for Boeing under its $4.2-billion, fixed-priced contract with NASA, which wants the redundancy of two different U.S. rides to the ISS.
The Starliner is several years behind schedule and more than $1.5-billion over budget. Meanwhile, Boeing’s commercial airplane manufacturing operations have been rocked by a series of crises involving its 737 Max jetliners.
Russian cosmonaut becomes 1st person to spend 1,000 cumulative days in space
Oleg Kononenko, 59, is set to return to Earth in September 2024
ByMary Kekatos and Gina Sunseri
June 5, 2024,
Russian cosmonaut sets new record
Oleg Kononenko has spent more than 878 days and 12 hours in space, totaling more than two and half years.
A Russian cosmonaut became the first person to spend a cumulative 1,000 days in space, Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced Wednesday.
Oleg Kononenko, 59, reached the record while on his current mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Kononenko's current mission to the ISS began Sept. 15, 2023, and is planned to end Sept. 23, 2024, which will bring in his total number of days spent in orbit to 1,110.
MORE: Astronaut Frank Rubio marks 1 year in space after breaking US mission record
"Today at 00:00:20 Moscow time, Roscosmos state corporation cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who currently works at the International Space Station has booked a record of 1,000 days for the first time in the world in terms of total spaceflight duration," the Roscomos statement reads, according to state news agency TASS.
Kononenko cumulated the days in space over several missions. His first was Expedition 17 to the ISS, which launched in April 2008. In total, Kononenko has been on five separate missions to the ISS.
This is not the first record set by Kononenko. In February 2024, he surpassed the record of 878 days set by his colleague Gennady Padalka for longest amount of time in space.
"I fly into space to do what I love, not to set records. I've dreamt of and aspired to become a cosmonaut since I was a child," Kononenko told TASS at the time. "That interest -- the opportunity to fly into space, to live and work in orbit -- motivates me to continue flying."
Unlike the Roscosmos cosmonauts, NASA astronauts typically spend no longer than six months aboard the ISS before they're rotated out for a new crew. One notable exception was Frank Rubio, who spent 371 days in space before returning to Earth last September after his original six-month mission at the ISS was extended by an additional six months.
Experts have previously told ABC News that spending a prolonged period in space comes with many changes to human physiology and psychology and that astronauts are often extensively monitored upon their return after long missions
Chile to install world's largest astronomy camera | REUTERS
WE GOOD
NASA SLAPS DOWN BILLIONAIRE'S PLAN TO FLY UP AND FIX HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
NASA IS WORRIED IT'S FAR TOO RISKY.
JUN 5,
by VICTOR TANGERMANN
/ OFF WORLD
Offer Declined
NASA's groundbreaking Hubble Space Telescope is on its last legs.
Ongoing issues with the aging spacecraft's remaining gyroscopes, which help point in the right direction, have forced scientists to limit its scientific operations, according to a Tuesday update, with teams preparing for "one-gyro operations."
And while billionaire space tourist Jared Isaacman, who already circled the Earth inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon, has offered to foot the bill for a Hubble maintenance mission — the last one took place in 2009, before the end of the Space Shuttle program — NASA has now turned him down.
Basically, the agency is worried Isaacman and his collaborators may end up doing more harm than good.
"After exploring the current commercial capabilities, we are not going to pursue a reboost right now," said NASA astrophysics director Mark Clampin, as quoted by CBS News. While NASA "greatly appreciates" their efforts, "our assessment also raised a number of considerations, including potential risks such as premature loss of science and some technology challenges."
However, the door isn't entirely shut just yet.
"So while the reboost is an option for the future, we believe we need to do some additional work to determine whether the long-term science return will outweigh the short-term science risk," Clampin concluded.
Thanks, But No Thanks
It's yet another intriguing development in the ever-changing relationship between NASA and the burgeoning private industry it's increasingly relying on for access to space.
As NPR reported last month, NASA spent years hemming and hawing over Isaacman's offer to visit the Hubble.
The entrepreneur and trained fighter jet pilot, who was the commander of the first all-civilian mission into space, which saw a crew of four circle the Earth inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in September 2021, has been calling for a maintenance mission, arguing that "the 'clock' is being run out on this game."
Isaacman will also attempt to perform the first-ever private spacewalk later this year.
But plenty of concerns remain, with NASA pointing out that SpaceX's Crew Dragon isn't exactly designed for such a mission, and lacks several core features over NASA's Space Shuttle, which was used to service the Hubble five times between 1993 and 2009.
For one, it doesn't have an airlock or a robotic arm, which could make repairing the Hubble difficult.
Besides, even during NASA's servicing missions, astronauts came nail-bitingly close to permanently damaging the space telescope.
Instead, NASA is looking for ways to eke out just over another decade of life out of the Hubble, without a SpaceX-enabled visit.
"We updated reliability assessments for the gyros... and we still come to the conclusion that (we have a) greater than 70 percent probability of operating at least one gyro through 2035," Hubble project manager Patrick Crouse told reporters on Tuesday.
More on the Hubble: NASA Experts Concerned Billionaire Space Tourist Will Accidentally Break Hubble Space Telescope While Trying to Fix It
Meet Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, NASA astronauts onboard Boeing's Starliner
NASA's Starliner spacecraft is carrying two veteran NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, and is expected to reach the ISS today.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Boeing Starliner launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida in a test flight on Wednesday after multiple delays. This was the third attempt since early May, after a pair of rocket-related problems, most recently last weekend.
The Starliner spacecraft is carrying two veteran NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, and is expected to reach the ISS around 9:45 pm (IST) on Thursday.
Who is Sunita Williams?
Sunita Williams, an Indian-American astronaut, is a former Navy helicopter pilot with experience in flying more than 30 different rotary aircraft. During the first Gulf War, Williams was deployed as part of a helicopter combat support squadron and was later flown in support of Navy disaster relief operations in Florida following Hurricane Andrew.
In 1998, Williams was selected for the NASA astronaut program. She began her journey by first flying to the space station aboard a space shuttle and then making a return visit as a Soyuz passenger, riding along with two cosmonauts. During her second ISS mission in 2012, Williams became only the second woman designated as commander of the station.
She also had set a world record for the most time spent by a woman in orbit outside a spacecraft, logging a total of 50 hours and 40 minutes combined during seven spacewalks.
Also read: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams gives insight into 1st crewed Boeing Starliner launch: ‘It feels unreal’
An avid athlete, Williams became the first person to complete a marathon in space in 2007, competing virtually in the Boston Marathon from orbit on the space station's treadmill to go the distance in four hours and 24 minutes, reported Reuters. Later, in 2012, she completed the first triathlon in space.
According to reports, Williams has spent a total of 322 days in space so far.
Who is Butch Wilmore?
Butch Wilmore is a retired US Navy captain who has completed four operational deployments flying fighter jets off the decks of aircraft carriers, including 21 combat missions during the first US Gulf War in the 1990s. He has also served as a Navy test pilot and flight instructor.
Wilmore joined the NASA astronaut corps in 2000. He first flew to the space station as a NASA space shuttle pilot in 2009, and returned to the orbiting laboratory in 2014 - launched aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with two cosmonauts.
So far, Wilmore has spent 178 days in space and conducted four spacewalks, reported Reuters.
He also holds advanced degrees in electrical engineering and aviation systems.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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