Tag Archives: NASA

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, was arrested on fraud charges in 2010 and faced lawsuits in two states for writing $2 million in bad checks to casinos, according to government records and court filings. Isaacman is a billionaire pilot and astronaut who founded the Shift4 Payments company as a teenager and commanded the first …

The Associated Press reports: NASA’s science budget could be cut nearly in half under an early version of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress, a move that would terminate billions of dollars’ worth of ongoing and future missions. The budget plan, sent to NASA by the Office of Management and Budget, would give NASA’s Science Mission Directorate $3.9 billion, …

Space.com reports: SpaceX is poised to land its Crew Dragon Freedom from the International Space Station with the two crewmates who launched on it and two astronauts who arrived at the space station last June on Boeing’s Starliner, which landed uncrewed without them. SpaceX’s Crew-9 is scheduled to splash down on Tuesday (March 18) at about 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 …

NPR reports: Four astronauts are scheduled to make a trip to the International Space Station later this evening. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will launch to the station aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Also on board is Takuya Onishi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. This is the second attempt to …

Florida Politics reports: Florida’s Senators are putting their muscle behind a Gov. Ron DeSantis priority regarding the future of NASA. U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott are introducing the Consolidating Aerospace Programs Efficiently (CAPE) at Canaveral Act to move the headquarters of the space agency on the Space Coast. “Establishing NASA’s headquarters within the Space Coast will bridge the …

Politico reports: NASA astronauts, speaking from space, debunked President Donald Trump’s claims that they had been left behind. Sunita Williams said she and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore were not stranded on the International Space Station despite comments Trump made last month that they were “virtually abandoned” by former President Joe Biden and needed saving. “We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t …

The Associated Press reports: A newly discovered asteroid has a tiny chance of smacking Earth in 2032, space agency officials said Wednesday. Scientists put the odds of a strike at slightly more than 1%. “We are not worried at all, because of this 99 percent chance it will miss,” said Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object …

NBC News reports: NASA is preparing to “taste” the sun on Christmas Eve. The agency’s Parker Solar Probe is days away from making its closest-ever approach to the sun on Tuesday, swooping nearer to our star than any other human-made object in history. The spacecraft, which is about the size of a small car, is set to dive within 3.86 …

Reuters reports: Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, selecting a billionaire private astronaut and close associate of Elon Musk to oversee an agency closely linked to the SpaceX founder’s business. Isaacman, CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments, has flown to space twice in missions arranged by his Polaris program, an effort using SpaceX vehicles and …

Via press release from NASA: Just what you need for the holidays… the coziness of a crackling and roaring rocket engine! Technically, this fireplace packs the heat of FOUR RS-25 rocket engines and a pair of solid rocket boosters – just enough to get you to the Moon. (And get through the holidays with your in-laws.) Video description: A stock …

Semafor reports: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Semafor’s Burgess Everett Friday that a Wall Street Journal report about calls between SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be investigated.” “I don’t know if that story is true,” Nelson said. “If it’s true there have been multiple conversations with Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then that …

NBC News reports: The two American astronauts stranded on the International Space Station through February said Friday they plan to vote in the November election from space. “I sent down my request for a ballot today,” one of the astronauts, Butch Wilmore, said on a call with reporters on Friday afternoon. “It’s a very important role that we play as …

The Washington Post reports: NASA announced Saturday that it will use SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to bring home two astronauts stuck in space for months, because the agency does not have confidence in Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule. The highly anticipated decision, one of the most consequential by the space agency in years, is a devastating blow to Boeing, which had argued …

Axios reports: NASA picked SpaceX to develop and deliver a spacecraft that’ll bring the International Space Station out of orbit after the operational life of the ISS ends in 2030, the space agency announced Wednesday. The spacecraft, which NASA is calling the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, needs to guide the ISS safely back through Earth’s atmosphere before its planned crash into …

USA Today reports: Boeing and NASA are once again “adjusting” the return home of two astronauts from the International Space Station on the Starliner spacecraft. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were scheduled to stay at the ISS for just a week after docking there June 6. Now they aren’t expected to make the trip back to Earth until at least …

Via press release from NASA: Although there are no known significant asteroid impact threats for the foreseeable future, hypothetical exercises provide valuable insights by exploring the risks, response options, and opportunities for collaboration posed by varying scenarios, from minor regional damage with little warning to potential global catastrophes predicted years or even decades in the future. During the exercise, participants …

Reuters reports: Boeing’s new Starliner capsule and its inaugural two-member NASA crew safely docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, meeting a key test in proving the vessel’s flight-worthiness and sharpening Boeing’s competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The rendezvous was achieved despite an earlier loss of several guidance-control jet thrusters, some of them due to a helium propulsion leak, …

The New York Times reports: Starship, the gargantuan rocket under development by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, launched on Thursday morning to make a fourth attempt to get to space and back. The previous three flights of the vehicle all ended in explosions, but each got farther than the last. Such progress is regarded as success in SpaceX’s break-it-then-fix-it approach to engineering …

CBNC reports: Boeing launched its first Starliner flight with astronauts on Wednesday, beginning a crucial final flight test of the long-delayed spacecraft. The launch took off at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida with two NASA astronauts aboard. Starliner is carried by an United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket and bound for the International Space Station. Wednesday’s liftoff comes …

Reuters reports: The White House on Tuesday directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States aims to set international norms in space amid a growing lunar race among nations and private companies. The head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy instructed the space agency …