Boeing – Page 17 – Spaceflight Now

Boeing reveals target dates for initial Starliner test flights

October 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Boeing officials said Wednesday that the company is targeting Dec. 17 for the launch of the first unpiloted orbital test flight of the new Starliner crew capsule from Cape Canaveral on a week-long demonstration mission to the International Space Station, a precursor to a mission with astronauts next year.

SLS pathfinder stage arrives at Florida launch site

October 1, 2019 Stephen Clark

A steel tube built as a stand-in for the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center for a series of rehearsals to hone the skills of technicians before the real rocket reaches the spaceport, an oft-delayed milestone that could still be a year or more away.

Boeing closing in on Starliner pad abort test

October 1, 2019 Stephen Clark

Boeing engineers in New Mexico are readying a Starliner spacecraft for a critical pad abort test this fall to demonstrate the capsule’s ability to escape an emergency on the launch pad before green-lighting the capsule to carry astronauts.

NASA still looking for new human spaceflight chief

September 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA hopes to have a new leader for the agency’s human spaceflight directorate by the end of the year to replace Bill Gerstenmaier, who held the post for nearly 14 years before his reassignment in July amid the Trump administration’s push to land humans on the moon by 2024, a NASA official said Wednesday.

SES selects SpaceX for two Falcon 9 launches

September 12, 2019 Stephen Clark

Two SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches will loft seven high-throughput broadband satellites for SES’s O3b mPower constellation in 2021, SES announced this week.

Spaceport survey finds little damage from Hurricane Dorian

September 6, 2019 Stephen Clark

Launch facilities at Cape Canaveral were spared any significant damage as Hurricane Dorian churned northward off Florida’s east coast earlier this week, and employees at the spaceport resumed their normal work Friday.

U.S. military spaceplane breaks its own longevity record in orbit

August 27, 2019 Stephen Clark

A robotic U.S. military spaceplane surpassed 719 days in orbit Monday, setting a new record for the longest flight of the Air Force’s winged X-37B orbiting experiment platform nearly two years after launching from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Boeing, SpaceX aim for more commercial crew test flights this fall

August 26, 2019 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule could take off in October on its first unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, a company official said recently, while SpaceX finishes up the investigation into the explosion of its Crew Dragon spacecraft during a ground test earlier this year.

Spacewalkers help install new space station docking port

August 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Drew Morgan completed a 6-hour, 32-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station Wednesday to help connect a newly-arrived docking port to the orbiting research outpost.

Photos: Falcon 9 rocket takes off with the Amos 17 satellite

August 13, 2019 Stephen Clark

These photos taken Aug. 6 show the liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Israeli-owned Amos 17 communications satellite, backdropped by dreary skies after thunderstorms passed through Cape Canaveral earlier in the day.