Space Flight

NASA and Boeing have announced that the next launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been pushed back to next year while the company works to correct an oxidizer isolation valve issue on the vehicle’s service module propulsion system. The problem was discovered last August when unexpected valve position indications caused the cancellation of an uncrewed […]

NASA has reassigned astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada from missions aboard Boeing’s Starliner to the SpaceX Crew-5 launch. Mann was previously assigned to NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test while Cassada was scheduled for the Starliner-1 mission. NASA noted that the change was made “to allow Boeing time to complete the development of Starliner while […]

Virgin Galactic says it’s planning its next crewed launch in mid-October after some remedial training from the FAA on the role of the push-to-talk button when flights don’t go according to plan. The agency has lifted its grounding order on the enterprise after the July publicity flight carrying founder Sir Richard Branson and other Virgin […]

After all these years, it seems that actor William Shatner, almost as well known as Capt. James Tiberius Kirk, is heading to the final frontier. The 90-year-old actor, who played arguably the world’s second most famous astronaut (Neil Armstrong has to be number one) in the cult classic 1960s TV series “Star Trek,” is reportedly […]

SpaceX’s Resilience Crew Dragon capsule splashed down safely in the Atlantic off Cape Canaveral Saturday evening, capping a three-day orbital mission carrying an all-civilian crew. The Inspiration4 mission, with space rookies Commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Sian Proctor, medical officer Hayley Arceneaux and mission specialist Chris Sembroski, orbited the planet as high as 400 miles. “Thanks so […]

Called “the world’s first all-civilian human spaceflight mission to orbit,” Inspiration4 launched successfully from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 8:02:56 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. The three-day orbital flight, which is using SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 launch vehicle, was booked by Shift4 Payments founder and pilot Jared Isaacman earlier this year. As previously reported […]

The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is reviewing the FAA’s ability to keep spacecraft and aircraft from trading paint and the FAA says it’s welcoming the probe. The announcement came a week after the agency started an investigation into a course deviation involving Virgin Galactic’s first passenger flight carrying its founder, Sir […]

Virgin Galactic says nobody was in any danger, including its founder and CEO Sir Richard Branson and three other passengers, aboard the landmark July 11 flight of its Unity spacecraft despite an FAA probe into the flight. The agency announced on Thursday that it was banning any further flights until it completes an investigation into the […]

Astra, a California commercial space launch company, had an unusual third attempt at reaching orbit on Saturday when its rocket seemingly recovered from a launch pad mishap only to tumble out of control a couple of minutes later. Astra is a Silicon Valley startup with a potentially lucrative list of military and commercial customers and […]

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule is heading back to the factory for a deeper dive into valve issues that scrubbed a critical shakedown flight earlier this month. The spacecraft was supposed to have launched to the International Space Station Aug. 3. It was a re-do of an uncrewed test flight that ended with an unplanned landing […]