Tag Archives: Nasa

NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), who has a 20% share of the program and its costs, will conclude the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) mission, after a successful eight years of science, NASA announced. The observatory will end operations by the end of September this year.

Human spaceflight services provider and human-rated space infrastructure developer Axiom Space, signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) to fly a UAE professional crew member to the ISS on the NASA-SpaceX Crew-6 mission, Axiom said. The mission is expected to launch in 2023.

The second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program launching Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is targeted for 19th May, Boeing said. During OFT-2, the company will test Starliner's and Atlas V’s capabilities from launch to docking and re-rentry operations.

Firefly says it has completed the Integration Readiness Review (IRR) of Blue Ghost M1, during which the team achieved key progress milestones across multiple areas. These include propulsion, core avionics, battery production, harness production, and facilities readiness to support lander integration.

Crew Dragon Freedom has successfully docked to the ISS, carrying ESA astronaut and mission specialist Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts  Kjell Lindgren (commander), Robert Hines (pilot) and Jessica Watkins (mission specialist). The crew has begun a six-month-long science mission as part of Expedition 67 and later Expedition 68.

Axiom-1, the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), successfully returned to Earth. American commander and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, pilot Larry Connor, Israeli mission specialist Eytan Stibbe, and Canadian mission specialist Mark Pathy landed off the coast of Florida yesterday.

Astrobotic unveiled the flight model of its Peregrine lunar lander that will fly to the Moon on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket in Q4 2022 as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Peregrine’s unveiling took place at Astrobotic’s headquarters in Pittsburgh with Congressman Matt Cartwright, NASA’s Bill Nelson, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, and James Reuter attending. 

Satellite internet company Starlink is testing its wireless internet services on Delta Air Lines’ airplanes. The Atlanta-based airline said they had been in discussions with Starlink, and conducted initial tests of the technology. SpaceX Starlink CEO Elon Musk, said that the company was aiming to get certified for Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 planes as well.

Canoo Technologies is supplying NASA’s Artemis II crew with a new fleet of transportation vehicles that will be used to take the astronauts to Launch Pad 39B for their historic ride aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, NASA announced. The fleet of three vehicles is designed to accommodate the fully suited astronauts, the support team, and their equipment.

SA will discontinue cooperative activities with Russia on Luna-25, -26 and -27 as per the ESA Council’s decision following a comprehensive review of all activities undertaken in cooperation with Russia and Ukraine. The sanctions in place due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine force the agency to end the planned lunar cooperation.