SpaceX launches space station crew on 8-month mission
The two-woman, two-man crew is replacing four other station fliers who came home early last month due to a medical issue one was having.
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The two-woman, two-man crew is replacing four other station fliers who came home early last month due to a medical issue one was having.
A United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket carrying classified Space Force payloads suffered a booster problem but apparently made an otherwise "nominal" ascent to space, the company said.
NASA says it can't try until March at the earliest to send a crewed spacecraft on a flight around the moon and back, due to hydrogen leaks during testing of the Artemis II rocket.
If the countdown and fueling test go well, four astronauts will set their sights on a Super Bowl Sunday launch to the moon.
The first Artemis moonshot with a crew is now targeted for no earlier than Feb. 8, two days later than planned.
Four Artemis II astronauts plan to fly around the moon and back next month, traveling farther from Earth than any humans before them.
Depending on the timing, NASA could launch a fresh crew to the space station while four other astronauts are flying around the moon.
Four space station Crew 11 fliers splashed down off the Southern California coast at 3:41 a.m. ET, closing out a 167-day stay in space cut short by a medical issue.
Mike Fincke thanked NASA for making crew health the agency's top priority.
NASA said the unidentified astronaut is "stable," but the agency is considering all options, including a possible early return to Earth for Crew 11
German engineer Michaela Benthaus is the first person with a significant physical handicap to reach space.
President Trump withdrew Isaacman's nomination for NASA administrator in April, before nominating him again in November.
NASA continues to aim its space telescopes at the visiting ice ball, estimated to be up to 3.5 miles in size.
Super-Earth TOI-561b is about 40 times closer to its host star than Mercury is to the sun.
NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that's been orbiting Mars for more than a decade.
