Category Archives: NASA

Nasa drops plan to land first woman and first person of color on the moon

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Promise was central plank to space agency’s Artemis program, which is scheduled to return humans to the lunar surface in 2027

Nasa has dropped its longstanding public commitment to land the first woman and person of color on the moon, in response to Donald Trump’s directives to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices at federal agencies.

The promise was a central plank of the space agency’s Artemis program, which is scheduled to return humans to the lunar surface in 2027 for the first time since the final Apollo mission in December 1972.

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‘Great to see our friends arrive’: SpaceX capsule docks with ISS to bring back stranded Nasa astronauts

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The arrival of four astronauts will allow Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return to Earth after nine months on the International Space Station

There were emotional scenes of smiling astronauts hugging and embracing in zero gravity on the International Space Station on Sunday after a replacement crew docked with the orbital outpost – a step towards the return home of two astronauts who have been stranded for more than nine months.

A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts to the ISS in a Nasa crew-swap mission that will allow the pair of stuck astronauts, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, to return home after nine months on the orbiting lab.

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Rocket blasts off to bring stranded US astronauts home from the ISS at long last

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Launched by Nasa and SpaceX, the Falcon 9 is picking up Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, whose eight days on board the International Space Station became nine months

A long-awaited mission to return stranded US astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station has been launched by Nasa and SpaceX.

The pair were due to spend eight days on the ISS in June, but technical problems with the experimental spacecraft that took them there have left them stuck on the orbital laboratory for nine months.

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Space mission aims to map water on surface of the moon

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A probe to be launched this week aims to pinpoint sites of lunar water, which could help plan to colonise the Earth’s satellite

Space engineers are set to launch an unusual mission this week when they send a probe built by UK and US researchers to the moon to map water on its surface. Lunar Trailblazer’s two year mission is scheduled to begin on Thursday when the probe is blasted into space from Florida on a Space X Falcon rocket.

Its goal – to seek out water on the lunar surface – may seem odd given that the moon has traditionally been viewed as an arid, desiccated world. However, scientists have recently uncovered strong hints that it possesses significant quantities of water. It will be the task of Lunar Trailblazer to reveal just how much water there is near the lunar surface and pinpoint its main locations.

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Nasa astronaut released from hospital after space return

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Unidentified member of team who returned in SpaceX capsule from ISS had been kept for observation

A Nasa astronaut who was briefly hospitalised after returning from space has been released, the space agency said Saturday.

Nasa’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin, were flown to the hospital for additional medical checks on Friday after parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast on board a SpaceX capsule.

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Boeing’s Starliner lands on Earth – without its astronauts

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Nasa’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who flew Starliner amid technical failures, will remain at ISS until February

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, months after its original departure date and without the two astronauts it carried when it launched in early June.

Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a Nasa live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.

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Nasa says astronauts stuck in orbit to return with SpaceX crew in February, not on Boeing Starliner

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Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore have been on the International Space Station since 6 June

Nasa has decided that the two astronauts currently stuck on the International Space Station will return next February on a SpaceX-crewed Dragon flight where two seats have been made available for Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

Space agency officials said there was “too much uncertainty” for the astronauts to return on the craft that brought them to the space station, Boeing’s Starliner, which has had problems after the capsule sprang small leaks and some of its thrusters failed.

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‘Not stranded in space’: how Nasa lost control of Boeing Starliner narrative

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Technical issues and poor comms led many to believe two astronauts are lost in space, but a return date is imminent

It should have been a welcome public relations triumph for Boeing, an opportunity to show that even if panels were falling from its aircraft, it could still fly humans into space and return them safely to Earth.

And for a while at least, it looked like it had been successful. The majestic June launch of the much-delayed and over-budget Starliner capsule from Florida, ferrying two Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station, offered a glimpse of a bright new future in the heavens for the troubled aerospace giant.

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US family sues Nasa for $80,000 in damages after space debris hits home

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Debris was from a pallet released from space station that did not burn up in atmospheric re-entry

A family in Naples, Florida, whose home was struck by debris that fell to Earth from outer space and punched a hole in the roof is pursuing $80,000 from Nasa in compensation for damages.

The law firm Cranfill Sumner said in a press release that it filed a claim on behalf of plaintiff Alejandro Otero and his family.

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Boeing Starliner capsule docks with space station despite helium leaks

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Successful maneuver means two US-built crewed spacecraft are anchored to ISS simultaneously for first time

Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule and its two astronauts overcame a technical hiccup to finally dock with the international space station on Thursday, as Nasa continued to monitor two separate helium leaks that have concerned mission managers.

A first attempt at the rendezvous was called off when engineers at the US space agency detected a problem with reaction control thrusters essential to the high-precision docking maneuver.

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China’s Chang’e-6 probe lands on far side of the moon

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Spacecraft to collect samples from rarely explored area after landing heralded as ‘enormous technical achievement’

China has landed its uncrewed Chang’e-6 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, marking an important step in the country’s 53-day mission to retrieve rock and soil samples from the “dark” lunar hemisphere, in what would be a world first.

The landing elevates China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the US are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.

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Potentially habitable planet size of Earth discovered 40 light years away

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Queensland- and Scotland-based PhD students co-lead team celebrating ‘Eureka moment’ spotting Gliese 12b

An Australian university student has co-led the discovery of an Earth-sized, potentially habitable planet just 40 light years away.

Shishir Dholakia, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland, is part of an international team that published the discovery in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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First Black astronaut candidate, now 90, reaches space in Blue Origin flight

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Ex-air force captain Ed Dwight, passed over by Nasa in 1961, now oldest person to reach edge of space with Jeff Bezo’s space firm

Sixty-one years since he was selected but ultimately passed over to become the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight finally reached space in a Blue Origin rocket – and set a different record.

At 10.37am on Sunday, Jeff Bezos’s space company launched its NS-25 mission from west Texas, marking Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight since 2022 when its New Shepard rocket was grounded due to a mid-flight failure.

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Boeing’s first astronaut launch called off due to faulty valve

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Countdown halted hours before liftoff in latest delay for long-planned flight, with no word on next attempt

Boeing called off its first astronaut launch because of a valve problem on its rocket on Monday night.

Two Nasa test pilots had just strapped into Boeing’s Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted, just two hours before the planned liftoff. A United Launch Alliance engineer, Dillon Rice, said the issue involved an oxygen relief valve on the upper stage of the company’s Atlas rocket.

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Nasa chief warns China is masking military presence in space with civilian programs

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Bill Nelson told Capitol Hill lawmakers that China has been ‘very, very secretive’ about its space progress, warning ‘we are in a race’

The head of Nasa has warned of China bolstering its space capabilities by using civilian programs to mask military objectives, cautioning that Washington must remain vigilant.

“China has made extraordinary strides especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

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‘I get emotional thinking about it’: US and Canada ready for total solar eclipse

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Cities expect huge crowds with millions gathering in 115-mile wide ‘path of totality’ for Monday’s exceptionally large and long eclipse

Should the weather gods grant their blessing, a celestial show for the ages will darken the heavens over a large swathe of the US from Texas to Maine on Monday, giving tens of millions of people a grandstand view of a rare phenomenon being billed as “the Great American Eclipse”.

It will be another 20 years until the next total solar eclipse can be viewed anywhere in the contiguous US, lending extra incentive for many who live outside the 115-mile wide “path of totality” to travel in and experience the moments of twilight, stillness and a sudden temperature drop the event will bring.

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Moon Standard Time? Nasa to create lunar-centric time reference system

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Space agency tasked with establishing Coordinated Lunar Time, partly to aid missions requiring extreme precision

The White House wants Nasa to figure out how to tell time on the moon.

A memo sent Tuesday from the head of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has asked the space agency to work with other US agencies and international agencies to establish a moon-centric time reference system. Nasa has until the end of 2026 to set up what is being called Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).

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Odysseus craft’s moon mission to be cut short after sideways landing

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Intuitive Machines, private company behind lander, says mission will end after five days rather than the expected to seven to 10

Flight control engineers expect to lose contact with the private US moon lander Odysseus on Tuesday, cutting short the mission five days after its sideways touchdown, the company behind the spacecraft, Intuitive Machines, said.

It remained to be seen how much scientific data might be lost as a result of the shortened life of Odysseus, which, according to previous estimates from the company and its biggest customer, Nasa, would have otherwise operated on the moon for seven to 10 days.

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US spacecraft on the moon ‘caught a foot’ and tipped on to side, says Nasa

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Intuitive Machines CEO says Odysseus tipped over and ended up on its side as it landed on to south polar region

Odysseus, the first US-built spacecraft to touchdown on the moon in more than half a century, is tipped over on its side, according to an update from Nasa and Intuitive Machines, the company that built and operated the lander.

The robotic lander descended on to the south polar region of the moon on Thursday at 6.23pm ET. But several minutes passed before flight controllers were able to pick up a signal from the lander’s communication systems.

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US returns to lunar surface for first time in over 50 years: ‘Welcome to the moon’

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Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft Odysseus lands after a 73-minute descent, touching down near moon’s south pole

The United States has returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years after a privately-built spacecraft named Odysseus capped a nail-biting 73-minute descent from orbit with a touchdown near the moon’s south pole.

Amid celebrations of what Nasa hailed “a giant leap forward”, there was no immediate confirmation of the status or condition of the lander, other than it had reached its planned landing site at crater Malapert A.

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