Space Flight

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time on Friday evening. The uncrewed mission, Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), launched from Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday. As previously reported by AVweb, OFT-2 was originally expected to launch last year but […]

Using the most diplomatic language possible, the three billionaires who paid $55 million each for a trip to the International Space Station told a news conference they were overworked on their epic adventure. “With the value of hindsight, we were way too aggressive on our schedule, in particular the first couple days,” said Larry Connor, […]

The National Aeronautic Association has awarded the coveted Collier Trophy to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team for “the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet, thereby opening the skies of Mars and other worlds for future scientific discovery and exploration.” The little drone with counter-rotating rotors has logged a […]

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned from the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, setting a new record for the longest single spaceflight in history by an American. Vande Hei launched on April 9, 2021, for a mission total of 355 days, 15 days longer than the previous record. According to NASA, he completed approximately […]

NASA has officially extended flight operations for its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, through September, according to an announcement from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Tuesday. Ingenuity, which travelled to Mars onboard the Perseverance rover, recently completed its 21st successful flight. The rotorcraft’s future flights will focus on supporting Perseverance as it explores the Jezero […]

Russia may reconsider its involvement in the international partnership that keeps the International Space Station (ISS) aloft, according to a statement from Dmitry Rogozin, who is the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos. Rogozin said that the agency is taking the position due to economic sanctions enacted by the U.S. in response to Russia’s invasion […]

NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to build a lightweight rocket designed to carry samples from the surface of Mars back Earth. The Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) will be part of the NASA’s Mars Sample Return program, which is working to retrieve rock, sediment and atmospheric samples collected by the agency’s Perseverance rover. If […]

The James Webb telescope finished the complex two-week deployment process on Saturday and is now on its way to its final parking spot, the so-called Lagrange Point 2, a point about a million miles from Earth that is at the gravitational point of equilibrium of the sun and Earth. “With the successful deployment and latching […]

Boeing has given up trying to fix the faulty fuel oxidizer valves that scrubbed its second attempt to send an uncrewed Starliner capsule to the International Space Station last July. The do-over test flight, made necessary by the failure of the first attempt to reach the correct orbit, was canceled about five hours before launch […]

NASA announced Wednesday that its Ingenuity Mars helicopter reached a total flight time of 30 minutes during its 17th flight on Dec. 5. The 117-second trip brought the total time in the air logged by the rotorcraft to 30 minutes and 48 seconds. As previously reported by AVweb, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to operate […]