Tracking Trends, Breaking News
Critical tests are on tap this weekend to confirm Boeing’s Starliner capsule can safety carry its two-person crew back to Earth despite problems that emerged early in the mission, officials said Thursday. Unexpected helium leaks and degraded maneuvering thrusters, discovered during the ship’s rendezvous with the International Space Station in early June, triggered weeks of
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NASA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Chandra X-ray Observatory launch by sharing never-before-seen photos of the largest known spiral galaxy in the universe. The Chandra X-ray observatory was launched on July 23, 1999. Since then, it has scoured the universe to look for X-ray emissions from exploded stars, clusters of galaxies and more,
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The cosmos is providing a full moon for the 55th anniversary of the first lunar landing this weekend, and plenty of other events honor Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s giant leap. Aldrin, 94, the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew, headlines a gala at the San Diego Air and Space Museum on Saturday
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The failure of a SpaceX rocket’s upper stage engine late Thursday that stranded 20 Starlink internet satellites in a low, non-survivable orbit will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and likely will delay at least one and possibly two upcoming piloted flights of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets. The mishap ended a remarkable string
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SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites from California Thursday, but the engine powering the rocket’s second stage suffered a catastrophic failure, if not an explosion, during an attempt to carry out a final “burn” to raise the low point of the orbit, company founder Elon Musk posted early Friday on X. Musk referred
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The crew of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft said Wednesday they’re confident the capsule will carry them safely back to Earth at the end of their extended stay aboard the International Space Station, despite helium leaks in the ship’s propulsion system and trouble with maneuvering thrusters. Launched June 5, commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams
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Running years behind schedule, Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket blasted off on its maiden flight Tuesday, thundering away from the European Space Agency’s jungle launch site in French Guiana in a bid to restore independent European access to space. Facing increasingly stiff international competition, Europe’s space agencies see the Ariane 6 as critical to re-establishing
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Four volunteers have emerged from NASA’s simulated Mars environment after more than a year spent on a mission that never actually departed Earth. The volunteer crew members spent more than 12 months inside NASA’s first simulated Mars habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston, which was designed to help scientists and researchers anticipate what a
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The return to Earth of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is on indefinite hold pending results of new thruster tests and ongoing analysis of helium leaks that cropped up during the ship’s rendezvous with the International Space Station, NASA announced Friday. But agency officials insisted Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams are not “stranded”
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A powerful SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket boosted a hurricane-hunting GOES weather satellite into orbit Tuesday, the final member of a four-satellite fleet at the heart of an $11 billion upgrade to the nation’s forecasting infrastructure. “NOAA’s geostationary satellites are an indispensable tool for protecting the United States and the one billion people who live and
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