NASA

NASA has announced the selection of Kathy Lueders as the agency’s next associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate. Lueders replaces Doug Loverro, who resigned from the position on May 18, less than two weeks before the first crewed launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Although the exact circumstances that led to […]

NASA has announced that it will provide nearly $2.4 million in funding to six universities as part of the agency’s Artemis Student Challenges program. According to NASA, the program is designed to “connect … students to the science, technology and missions of Artemis through authentic, mission-driven experiences and learning opportunities.” Artemis Student Challenges is led […]

FAA Approves Seatless Airliners For Freight Reminds me of the QC 727’s of the early 70’s. Slide out the seats and slide in containers. It’s gonna be a while before these airplanes will have paying passengers on board. Instead, keep them flying with paying boxes instead of paying passengers. It could lead to a new […]

NASA has announced that it is planning to launch the first crewed mission using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft at 4:32 p.m. EDT on May 27, 2020. The Crew Dragon will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard. According […]

In collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA‑ASI) and the FAA, NASA successfully completed the first flight of its Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) demonstration activities last Friday. According to NASA, the SIO demonstrations are designed to “highlight commercial UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] missions that have the potential to provide economic and public benefit” […]

NASA astronaut Alfred “Al” Worden passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. Worden was the command module pilot for the 1971 Apollo 15 lunar landing mission, orbiting the Moon while David Scott and James Irwin landed on the surface. On the return trip to Earth, Worden became the first person to conduct a […]

NASA signed agreements with 17 aviation companies to support its Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Grand Challenge technology demonstrations on Tuesday. Each company provided a proposal in one of three categories: developmental flight testing, developmental airspace simulation and vehicle provider information exchange. The new agreements will focus on developmental testing in advance of the first Grand […]

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson passed away today at the age of 101. Johnson was known for her work on historic missions and projects including America’s first human spaceflight (Alan Shepard—Freedom 7) and first orbital spaceflight (John Glenn—Friendship 7), syncing Project Apollo’s lunar module with the command module, the Space Shuttle program and the Earth Resources […]

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule made history on Sunday but this time it was for a success. The empty crew capsule failed to make it to its intended orbit following the spacecraft’s first uncrewed test launch on Friday but after doing some math engineers were able to bring it to a soft landing on the […]

NASA’s Orion spacecraft was transported from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to Mansfield Lahm Airport (MFD) in Ohio onboard the agency’s Super Guppy aircraft on Sunday. The aircraft arrived at MFD at approximately 4:35 p.m. EST where it was greeted by a crowd of almost 1,500 people. NASA acquired the Super Guppy, which is the last […]