Enlarge / Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft made its final landing on the International Space Station last month. Before Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule is allowed to leave the International Space Station and head back to Earth, NASA managers want to make sure the spacecraft’s troubled control engines can guide the two-person crew home. The two astronauts who … Read more
The Starliner spacecraft from NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked in the forward port of the Harmony module as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles (423 kilometers) above the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: NASA Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is stuck in the space station for the time being NASA and Boeing have adjusted the … Read more
WASHINGTON – NASA and Boeing have once again extended the CST-100 Starliner’s stay on the International Space Station as engineers complete analysis of thruster problems and helium leaks on the crewed spacecraft. At a June 18 briefing, NASA announced that Starliner’s return to Earth on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, which had already been … Read more
NASA, as always, is exploring the next generation of thrusters to enable increasingly ambitious space missions. One idea currently moving to Phase II of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) program is a Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR). The PPR “uses a fission-based nuclear power system to rapidly induce a phase change in a fuel projectile … Read more
The BepiColombo spacecraft, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), could feel the heat even before it reaches its destination: Mercury. Thanks to a malfunction, the spacecraft’s thrusters are no longer operating at full power. The team has yet to determine how this will affect upcoming maneuvers, such … Read more