The first test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule with astronauts has been delayed from February to April 2023, moving the mission after a busy stretch of crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station, and allowing more time for engineers to address problems discovered on an unpiloted test flight earlier this year, NASA said last week.
Three NASA astronauts and the outgoing European commander of the International Space Station departed the orbiting complex and headed for Earth on Friday aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom spacecraft. Undocking from the space station occurred at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT). A parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, followed nearly five hours later 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT).
Four astronauts are preparing to ride a SpaceX Dragon crew capsule from the International Space Station back to Earth this week to close out a nearly six-month expedition, targeting splashdown off the coast of Florida. NASA and SpaceX officials waved off return opportunities Wednesday and Thursday due to unfavorable weather in the splashdown zones.
Two NASA astronauts, a veteran Japanese space flier, and the first Russian cosmonaut to launch on a U.S. spacecraft since 2002 soared into orbit Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, in what could signal an easing of tension between NASA and the new leadership of the Russian space agency.
A multinational crew from the United States, Japan, and Russia launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) Wednesday in pursuit of the International Space Station. The four-person crew rode a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to docking at the space station at 5:01 p.m. EDT (2101 GMT) Thursday to begin a five-month science expedition.
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