Latest news with #CommercialCrewProgram
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA targets July 31 for Crew-11 launch while Ax-4 mission won't return until next week
There's nowhere to park right now at the International Space Station for NASA's next Commercial Crew Program launch, but a slot should clear next week allowing for the launch of Crew-11 as early as July 31. That's because the private Axiom Space Ax-4 mission that arrived to the space station two weeks ago could depart as early as Monday, according to an update Thursday from NASA and SpaceX officials. The station only has room for two of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft at a time. Right now it has the newest Dragon named Grace, used by Ax-4 when it launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 25 arriving to the station one day later, and the Crew Dragon Endurance that was used by Crew-10 when it launched from KSC back in March. Once Ax-4 departs, it will allow for SpaceX to send up Crew Dragon Endeavour flying for a record sixth time launching from KSC's Launch Pad 39-A as early as 12:09 p.m. on the last day of the month. 'We're excited for this Dragon, named Endeavour by its first crew, to carry four more astronauts to space in a few weeks,' said Sarah Walker, director of Dragon Mission Management at SpaceX. It first flew the Demo-2 mission in May 2020 taking up to space NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, marking the return of U.S.-based launches for astronauts following the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. It has since flown the Crew-2, Axiom-1, Crew-6 and Crew-8 missions. 'This Dragon spacecraft has successfully flown 18 crew members representing eight countries to space already, starting with Bob and Doug,' Walker said. SpaceX now has five human-rated spacecraft, with Crew Dragon Grace having just made its debut on Ax-4 last month, but Endeavour is the fleet leader. In total, the company's five Crew Dragons have flown 18 times with 70 humans on board. NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said teams have had to work through 360 different design units on the Dragon to sign off on it to go beyond the original limit of five flights per spacecraft, although some Dragon parts are certified to fly up to 15 missions. 'We've had to go through and do a recertification effort of Dragon, working hand-in-hand with SpaceX to get to six flights,' he said. 'This Dragon has a number of upgrades. We continue to try to improve our risk posture for crew safety.' That includes improved drogue parachutes and a new heat shield. The launch July 31 would mean a very long transit to the station, a more than 39-hour trip that would dock early Aug. 2. If it can't make the July 31 launch target, there are options to fly Aug. 1 to 3 and Aug. 5 to 7. 'As always, NASA and SpaceX work closely to ensure that all teams and hardware are ready to fly,' Walker said. 'So we still have multiple reviews and tests ahead of us prior to launch, and each one of those gives us an opportunity to step back to talk to each other, to review the data, listen to the hardware and mitigate any risks for a safe flight.' The four members of Crew-10 would then prep for their return home on Crew Dragon Endurance. They would leave no earlier than Aug. 5 and land in the Pacific for what would be only the third time, following the Fram2 landing earlier this year and the Ax-4 landing coming up shortly. 'We're also super excited for the first time for Commercial Crew return of our vehicle, our crew, to the West Coast,' Stich said. For Crew-11, it will send up NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Cardman and Fincke's flights come after having previously assigned flights pulled because of issues with Boeing's Starliner. 'We have been training together since roughly September of last year,' Cardman said. 'We were all in the unique position of actually training with previous crew assignments. What that has meant for us is an incredible bond that is rooted in gratitude and resilience.' Cardman was supposed to command the Crew-9 flight that flew up to the station last fall with only two instead of the normal four astronauts. That was because that mission was needed to fly home two NASA astronauts who were left behind on the station by Starliner during its first crewed test flight last summer. NASA ultimately decided to send it home without crew because of safety concerns, and that caused a domino effect that removed Cardman and other other NASA astronaut from their planned Crew-9 flight. Cardman, a rookie, will command the mission, while Fincke will be making his fourth launch to space having flown on both the space shuttle and two Soyuz missions. 'I'm looking forward to riding on a Dragon,' Fincke said. Fincke was originally assigned to fly on the first Starliner test flight, and then was bumped to be on what was supposed to be the first operational flight, Starliner-1. But when that flight will happen is up in the air, and reliant on Boeing fixing the safety issues on Starliner. A crewed flight may not happen until late 2026. Russia's Platonov is also a first-time flyer while Yui is making his second spaceflight having previously flown on Soyuz. The quartet is expected to be at the station for at least six months, but could potentially stay closer to eight, Stich said. They will become part of Expedition 73 and then 74 as the International Space Station, which has been crewed nonstop since late 2020. 'We'll be marking that huge milestone of 25 years of continuous human presence on the space station, and this will be the crew that will be on board to mark that milestone for us coming up,' said NASA's Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for the space station. He stumped for the station's contribution to NASA during that run including its work that helps NASA's current major objectives. 'We've really done an amazing amount of work advancing scientific knowledge, demonstrating new technologies, and really doing all of the things that help prepare us for human exploration of the moon and Mars,' he said. 'A lot of the technologies that we've proven out on space station over these 25 years are being used in those next-step programs.' Veteran Fincke, a member of the 1996 class of NASA astronauts, is happy to return for what will be his fourth stay on the station. 'I remember when space station was just pieces here on the ground, and I cannot say how amazed and proud I am of human beings from all over this planet working together pretty darn well,' he said. ---------------
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Business Standard
6 days ago
- Science
- Business Standard
Axiom-4 mission: Shubhanshu Shukla likely to return to Earth on July 14
Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three other crew members of the Axiom-4 mission are set to return to earth from the International Space Station on July 14, NASA said on Thursday. New Delhi Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and the other three members of the Axiom-4 mission are scheduled to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on July 14, according to Nasa. 'We are working with the station program, watching the Axiom-4 progress carefully. I think we need to undock that mission and the current target to undock is July 14,' said Steve Stitch, manager of Nasa's Commercial Crew Program, during a press briefing. Mission timeline The Axiom-4 mission took off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 25 after multiple delays. The crew's spacecraft, Dragon, reached the ISS the next day after a 28-hour journey and successfully docked on June 26.
Mint
08-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
‘Biggest crisis ever': What happens if Trump cancels billions of dollars of SpaceX contracts with NASA
An expert said the feud between US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk could potentially plunge US space programmes into the "biggest crisis ever." The statement came after Trump threatened to terminate government contracts with Musk's companies after the duo's unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce on June 5, 2025. Trump and Musk's public relationship turned sour after Musk launched a barrage of criticism on Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill." Taking the threat seriously, Musk posted on X, saying: "In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately." However, Musk appeared to reverse course hours later. Responding to a follower on X who urged him and Trump to "cool off and take a step back for a couple of days," Musk wrote: "Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon." Trump's warning has put around $22 billion of SpaceX's government contracts at risk, Reuters reported. Moreover, multiple US space programs could face dramatic changes in the fallout from Elon Musk and Trump's explosive feud over the "big, beautiful" spending bill. In the wake of Trump's threats, Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for the Pasadena-based Planetary Society, told BBC News that the potential cuts represent "the biggest crisis ever to face the US space programme". If the president prioritised political retaliation and canceled billions of dollars of SpaceX contracts with NASA and the Pentagon, it could slow US space progress, Reuters reported. Elon Musk's SpaceX and Dragon spacecraft have been part of the key American mission to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA uses SpaceX's Dragon for its Commercial Crew Program — taking astronauts to and from the ISS. This means that the cancellation of SpaceX's government contracts and the decommissioning of Dragon would impact the US's ability to launch astronauts to space from American soil. Under a roughly $5 billion contract, the Dragon capsule has been NASA's only US vessel capable of carrying astronauts to and from the ISS, making Musk's company a critical element of the US space program. NASA uses Russia's Soyuz spacecraft as a secondary ride for its astronauts to the ISS. Boeing's Starliner is an option, but the spacecraft has not been certified yet to fly operational astronaut missions and is still several months away from launching again. Some of SpaceX's more important government contracts include NASA's Commercial Crew Program and cargo resupply services for the ISS and the space station's deorbit vehicle. Currently, there's one Crew Dragon docked at the ISS. It's in the middle of SpaceX's Crew-10 astronaut mission for NASA. Axiom Space is just days away from launching its fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS aboard a Dragon spacecraft. Founded in 2002, SpaceX has won $15 billion of contracts from NASA for the company's Falcon 9 rockets and development of SpaceX's Starship, a multipurpose rocket system tapped to land NASA astronauts on the moon this decade. According to NASA has picked SpaceX's next-gen Starship spacecraft to be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis moon program. If all goes as planned, Starship will put NASA astronauts on the moon for the first time in 2027, on the Artemis 3 mission. "The cessation of these contracts — alongside the nearly 25% cut to NASA's overall budget and roughly 50% cut to its science programs that the White House has proposed for 2026 — could mark the end of NASA as we currently know it," the report added. Notably, under Trump in recent months, the US space industry and NASA's workforce of 18,000 have been whipsawed by looming layoffs and proposed budget cuts that would cancel dozens of science programs. Besides, Musk's quest to send humans to Mars has been a critical element of Trump's space agenda. The effort has threatened to take resources away from NASA's flagship effort to send humans back to the moon. However, it's unclear what a Dragon decommissioning would mean for SpaceX's other private spaceflight endeavors. NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens told in an emailed response, "NASA will continue to execute upon the President's vision for the future of space. We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President's objectives in space are met." Meanwhile, former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver was quoted by Reuters as saying canceling SpaceX's contracts would probably not be legal.' But she also added, 'A rogue CEO threatening to decommission spacecraft, putting astronauts' lives at risk, is untenable.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Career at NASA helping with launches, spaceflight voted in survey as 'coolest' in Florida
3 ... 2 ... 1 ... liftoff! A career at NASA helping to execute both crewed and uncrewed rocket launches from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida was recently voted as the "coolest" job in all of the state. That's according to a study conducted by which surveyed 3,002 job seekers asking them to name the coolest positions in every state in the U.S. "The results paint a vivid picture of ambition, adventure, and some seriously cool roles," according to a statement from the company, a platform that offers a range of job search and career advancement tools, including a resume-builder. Here's what to know about the role of a mission engineer, selected as the "coolest" job in Florida. Mission engineers can earn six-figure salaries overseeing rocket liftoffs at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, where a constant cadence of launches keeps NASA busy every week, according to The career services platform described the job in its survey as "high-pressure work where precision matters-and one wrong call could scrub the countdown" for launches viewed around the world. "For engineers drawn to adrenaline, spaceflight, and real-time impact, this Florida gig offers front-row seats to history with fire and thunder," said. Turns out, mission engineer is not a specific title, but a descriptor that can apply to many different positions at Kennedy Space Center, a NASA spokeswoman said in an email to the USA TODAY Network. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida employs about 2,100 federal civil servants, about 120 of whom are 'operations engineers," the agency said. Mission operators are responsible for anything from developing and planning spaceflight operations, to training astronauts selected for a crew. Those who may be considered mission engineers have more official titles like launch director – responsible, in part, for carrying out launch countdowns – or landing and recovering director, a position tasked with retrieving astronauts and their vehicles when they land back on Earth. "This career field encompasses a range of specialized engineers who enable successful launch and other operations for Earth's premier spaceport," according to a statement. It's not only NASA whose spacecraft launch from Cape Canaveral, but also private vehicles developed by SpaceX, Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight company. In April 2025, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' "Amazon rocket launch" also took flight at Kennedy Space Center, contracting with United Launch Alliance to deliver the first 27 of more than 3,200 planned internet satellites into low-Earth orbit for its Project Kuiper mission. The U.S. space agency also contracts with SpaceX for its series of so-called Crew missions, which regularly sends astronauts to the International Space Station to conduct about six-months of science research at a time. The missions under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which use a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launch from NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A. NASA employees with "operations engineer" in their job description are involved with planning and executing the Crew missions, as well as regular resupply missions to the space station. Operations engineers also play myriad roles in commencing and overseeing uncrewed scientific missions, such as the Europa Clipper that launched in October 2024 bound for a Jupiter moon. Coming up, they'll be crucial for planning the future human missions around and to the moon under the agency's Artemis lunar program, which will get off the ground in Florida. As the landing and recovering director for the Artemis II mission planned for 2026, Lili Villarreal is among NASA's employees who could be considered a missions operations engineer. Named to the position in 2023, Villarreal joined NASA in 2007 after beginning her career as a Boeing contractor. For the upcoming lunar mission, she'll lead a team that will recover four astronauts set to embark on a 10-day trip circumnavigating – but not landing on – the moon when they splashdown back on Earth in the Orion capsule. "I really wanted it because it's an exciting and rewarding job, but it also comes with significant responsibility," Villarreal said in a statement to the USA TODAY Network. "As the recovery director, you're not just responsible for the safety of the crew, you're also responsible for the safety of everybody who helps recover the crew." Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: What's the 'coolest' job in Florida? Survey finds it's this NASA job
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronauts Would Fly Boeing Starliner Again After Nine-Month Ordeal In Orbit
After spending nine months stuck on the International Space Station, the last thing I would consider doing is flying the same spacecraft that left me stranded there, but I'm not an astronaut. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stated that they would be happy to fly the Boeing Starliner again during a post-flight press conference on Monday. It's not an empty compliment, as NASA is open to scheduling another Starliner flight before the end of the year. Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth last month on NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The duo launched to the ISS on Starliner in July last year for an 8-day test flight. Once helium leaks and thruster issues emerged en route to the station, the mission stretched for months as engineers attempted to resolve the problems. The pair didn't blame anyone for how the ordeal played out but praised the positive aspects of Starliner. Notably, the spacecraft shares the traditional design philosophy of Boeing's planes, like how the pilots should ultimately be in control. Starliner featured a manual override to the spacecraft's autonomous flight capabilities. According to Space Police Online, Wilmore said: "I jokingly said a couple of times before we launched that I can literally do a barrel roll over the top of the space station. ... If we can figure out a couple of very important primary issues with the thrusters and the helium system, Starliner is ready to go." Read more: John Oliver Explains How All Of Boeing's Problems Can Be Traced Back To Stock Buybacks And Incompetent Leadership Wilmore and Williams are set to meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to discuss what happened during the test flight. Since Starliner's uncrewed return last September, NASA confirmed that 70% of the flight observations and in-flight anomalies have been closed. Despite the rapid pace in fixing issues, the problems with the thrust still persist. NASA aims to fly a certification flight later this year or in early 2026. The space agency wants to have a redundancy in capabilities and not be utterly dependent on the SpaceX Crew Dragon. Surprisingly, Boeing remains committed to fixing Starliner. NASA's Commercial Crew Program awarded Boeing a fixed-cost contract. If the aerospace giant exceeded the set budget, then it would have to cover the additional costs. The Starliner program was already over budget by $2 billion. Boeing considered ditching the final frontier altogether late last year by selling off its space division, but management decided to double down on Starliner. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
