Atlas 5

Playing it safe, the seven-member crew of the International Space Station moved into the U.S. segment of the outpost Friday, closed hatches and window shutters and stood by while Russian flight controllers vented helium pressurization lines in the newly arrived Nauka lab module.

A heavyweight Russian laboratory module that experienced a variety of problems after launch last week docked at the International Space Station Thursday, but in a moment of unexpected drama, inadvertent thruster firings briefly knocked the sprawling complex out of its normal orientation.

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket rolled out to pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida Thursday, moving into position for liftoff to begin a critical unpiloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule to the International Space Station. Officials postponed the Starliner launch from Friday after a problem with the newly-arrived Russian Nauka module at the station.

The threat of lightning could thwart plans to launch an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Friday with a Boeing commercial crew capsule on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, according to the forecasters on the Space Coast.

NASA and Boeing held a day-long flight readiness review Thursday and cleared the company’s CST-100 Starliner astronaut ferry ship for launch July 30 on a second unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

United Launch Alliance’s next Atlas 5 launch will carry Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into orbit July 30 on its second unpiloted test fight, officials confirmed Thursday. An Atlas 5 rocket for the U.S. military previously scheduled for June 23 has been postponed as engineers analyze unexpected vibrations of a new upper stage engine nozzle on a mission last month.