The International Space Station is a collaborative project between five space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA; and 16 nations. The Space Station serves as a floating laboratory in Low-Earth orbit. First launched in 1998, the station has been continually occupied by humans since 2000 and sees continual updates.
The International Space Station, in its name, is an international cooperation between both space agencies and nations. All these nations support funding for maintaining and providing experiments and crew for the station.
Next year we will pass the milestone of a quarter century of a continued human presence in space thanks to the International Space Station. Led by NASA’s efforts to lead in LEO, NASA plans to take the lead in the commercial space station market as well. However, NASA’s method might not be what we expect it to be.
Boeing, the once esteemed aerospace contractor has had its hands in almost every national space program since Apollo. However, it seems likely that the company wants to divest itself of almost all of its space programs.
One mission concluded, one moved into its next phase, and another is getting ready to launch. Here’s a brief recap of the last few days’ worth of human spaceflight stories.
In an update to the media this week, NASA reiterated many points it said in an earlier update as it works through more data before making a final decision on the Starliner CFT spacecraft. For now, Starliner’s crew are in limbo as to what how and when they will return home.
We have a total for four launches this week currently on the schedule, we’ll see if that changes. Two of those are from SpaceX and shocking, even myself, neither are for the company’s Starlink constellation. The headliner this week will be Russia‘s Progress MS-28 resupply mission to the ISS on Wednesday.
NASA‘s mood toward’s the safety of returning Boeing‘s Crewed Flight Test crew back on Starliner has switched from steadfast support to plans to use SpaceX Dragon for a return flight. However, this has caused drastic changes to both SpaceX‘s and NASA’s launched schedules using its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Next month SpaceX is planning to launch the next crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. In case you forgot, here’s a quick recap of who’s going to be on top of that Falcon 9 rocket come liftoff.
Earlier this month, NASA selected SpaceX to be the builder of the vehicle that will be tasked with deorbiting the International Space Station in the 2030s. While no design was shared, it was said to be built on Dragon heritage hardware. In a new render, SpaceX shows off that it’s not just based on it, it’s basically just a long Dragon.
In preparation for the safe deorbit of the International Space Station after 2030, NASA has selected SpaceX to build and deliver the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle. The single-award contract, valued at $843 million, is widely regarded as critical to ensure the safe and controlled deorbiting of the decades-old laboratory, minimizing risks to populated areas.
Over a 24 hour process, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft inched their way to rendezvous with the International Space Station Thursday. In typical Starliner fashion, it wasn’t perfect, but the crew arrived to the station safe and are ready to get some work done.
NASA and Boeing teams are targeting a 12:15 P.M. ET docking of Starliner with the International Space Station after a successful liftoff Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning Boeing, ULA, and NASA once again convened to attempt to launch the Starliner CFT mission with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard. With a clean countdown, ULA’s Atlas V successfully delivered Starliner to space, however, two additional helium leaks have been found while in orbit, but docking is planned to continue unchanged.
By the end of the week the International Space Station will be fully ready to support Boeing Starliner’s Crewed Test Flight with an opening on the forward docking port on the station’s Harmony Module. This will be completed with the reshuffling of two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Last week Boeing and ULA rolled a Starliner spacecraft from the former’s facilities on Kennedy Space Center to the latter’s launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. With that, final checkouts are underway before two NASA astronauts climb inside and fly it to the ISS and back.
Sunday night into Monday morning SpaceX successfully delivered the next crew rotation for NASA to the International Space Station. This was another flawless human spaceflight mission for SpaceX, its 14th overall and second of 2024.
In an experiment conducted over the weekend, surgeons stationed on Earth achieved a significant milestone by remotely controlling a small robot to perform surgery aboard the International Space Station. This highly anticipated event, involving the cutting of rubber bands as part of a surgical simulation, marks the first surgery of its kind in orbit that plays a giant leap in the development of space surgery capabilities.Â
Thursday afternoon SpaceX launched the Axiom-3 mission out of Kennedy Space Center making it its first human spaceflight mission of the year. Another milestone first was it being the first entirely European crewed mission ever with all four astronauts holding citizenship from a European nation.
For 20 years there has been a human presence in space on board the International Space Station (ISS). In those 20 years plenty of astronauts have made the sacrifice to be away from family and friends during Thanksgiving to continue the world’s push for new scientific discovery. Even though they are in space and remain busy, they still get the chance to celebrate the holiday.
Boeing‘s Starliner spacecraft is currently on track for its April 2024 launch date according to NASA’s Phil McAlister. However, this is all reliant on Starliner performing well during a January parachute drop test on a newly designed soft link on the spacecraft.
The International Space Station is designed to always be crewed by cosmonauts and astronauts. For this reason, women and men have been living and working in space constantly since the first Expedition mission in the year 2000. So how many people are in space right now?
Last Friday morning a fresh crew of two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut lifted off from Kazakhstan and arrived at the International Space Station. While relieving three crew members on the station, it also marks the start of another year long stint in space for Russia.
Today Axiom Space announced who will be flying to the ISS early next year on the third private astronaut mission. This mission will feature a return Axiom astronaut as well as an all European crew.
Early Saturday morning a crew of four astronauts from around the globe lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 for a six-month stay on the International Space Station. The crew is currently in transit to the ISS, and expecting to arrive Sunday morning.
Over the course of the past six months, Crew-6 has delivered an abundance of breathtaking images from the International Space Station. These views of Earth give the rest of the population the ability to see our planet from unprecedented views.
