spaceflight

Starliner’s crew flight test (CFT) is the first time the capsule has carried humans and is intended to be its final mission before NASA moves to certify it for service.

The semireusable space capsule has a new launch target after yet another issue postponed its first crewed flight to Wednesday at the earliest.

Starliner crews are contending with what NASA describes as a ‘design vulnerability’ that could prevent the spacecraft from performing a deorbit burn.

Research conducted on behalf of the Lego Group finds that more than half of Generation Alpha respondents want to be astronauts when they grow up.

The postponement marks the fifth delay to the long-awaited mission, which would be the first time humans have flown on Starliner.

The spacecraft’s inaugural crewed flight test will now occur no earlier than 4:43 p.m. EDT on Tuesday after teams discover a new issue.

Musk’s timeline would place Starship’s fourth orbital test flight sometime in June, but SpaceX will need to wait for the FAA to wrap up its investigation.

A former contractor of Boeing valve supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne is urging the space agency to “redouble” safety checks before attempting another launch.

The company proposes installing infrastructure that would support as many as 44 Starship launches annually but will first need to pass an environmental assessment.

The space agency and manufacturer are now targeting a launch no earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 17.