NASA flight director discusses curtailed spacewalk

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken say SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was a “very pure flying machine” as it sped their Crew Dragon spaceship into orbit, but they said they were surprised by the rougher-than-expected ride on the Falcon 9’s powerful upper stage.

Two veteran cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Wednesday, swapped out materials science space exposure samples, installed handrails needed for future spacewalks and tested an applicator and thin-film coatings that could prove useful reconditioning aged or damaged hull panels.

Russian ground crews working in starkly different environments on the barren steppes of Kazakhstan and in the lush jungles of South America are readying a pair of Soyuz rockets for two launches Thursday, one to resupply the International Space Station, and another to broaden the capacity of SES’s O3b Internet network.