Boeing – Page 22 – Spaceflight Now

Viasat selects Atlas 5 rocket for broadband satellite launch

September 11, 2018 Stephen Clark

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will send one of Viasat’s next-generation broadband satellites toward geostationary orbit from Cape Canaveral some time between 2020 and 2022, the companies announced Monday.

Air Force releases new target dates for upcoming military launches

September 7, 2018 Stephen Clark

Managers have pushed back the next flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket from a launch pad in California until no sooner than early December, and the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy for the U.S. Air Force has likely been delayed to some time early next year, officials said this week.

Station crew faces busy schedule as commercial crew schedule ramps up

August 31, 2018 William Harwood

An impromptu repair job Thursday appears to have stopped a leak in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station, and the crew was back on its normal schedule Friday carrying out research and making preparations for the arrival of a Japanese cargo ship next month.

NASA reveals crews for first flights of commercial spaceships

August 3, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Friday a mix of spaceflight veterans and rookie astronauts who will launch on the first flights of new Boeing and SpaceX commercial spaceships starting as soon as next spring, several months later than previously scheduled.

Watch live as NASA announces astronaut crews for new U.S. spacecraft

August 3, 2018 Spaceflight Now

NASA is announcing the astronauts who will fly the first crewed test flights of the SpaceX Dragon 2 and Boeing Starliner capsules next year. The event at the Johnson Space Center is due to get underway at 11am EDT (1500 GMT).

Photos: Astronauts trained in emergency procedures at Atlas 5 launch pad

August 2, 2018 Stephen Clark

Several NASA astronauts, plus Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson, recently participated in a training session at Cape Canaveral, practicing how they would evacuate from the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad in the event of a countdown emergency.

NASA’s last shuttle commander to helm test flight of Boeing crew capsule

August 2, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s last space shuttle commander — former U.S. Navy fighter pilot Chris Ferguson — will fly Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule on its first piloted test mission to the International Space Station next year.

Boeing delays crew capsule test flights after abort engine problem

August 1, 2018 Stephen Clark

Boeing has reshuffled a sequence of test flights planned for the company’s CST-100 Starliner capsule after stuck valves inside a test version of the ship’s service module caused a fuel spill in June, delaying the commercial spacecraft’s first unpiloted orbital demo mission until late this year or early 2019, and moving back the first crew launch to mid-2019, a company official said Wednesday.

Rapid-fire engine tests raise hopes for DARPA’s planned reusable spaceplane

July 18, 2018 Stephen Clark

A series of unprecedented back-to-back test-firings of a rocket engine originally developed for NASA’s space shuttle concluded earlier this month, giving engineers data crucial to achieving rapid 24-hour turnarounds planned for a U.S. military-funded reusable winged booster under construction at Boeing, government and industry officials said.

SpaceX’s first space-worthy Crew Dragon capsule arrives at Cape Canaveral

July 14, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft, a capsule designed to eventually carry astronauts on treks to the International Space Station, has arrived at Cape Canaveral to begin preparations for launch on an unpiloted test flight later this year.