Astronauts
Blue Origin launches star-studded crew on space tourism rocket
• Pop star Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King are among six women who traveled aboard Blue Origin’s all-female, suborbital space tourism mission.
• The company’s New Shepard rocket lifted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site around 9:30 a.m. ET Monday and landed safely about 10 minutes later.
• The flight soared well above the Kármán line, a point at 100 kilometers (62 miles) that is often used to define the altitude at which air space ends and outer space begins...
The Facts Behind the Delayed Return of U.S. Astronauts
The return of astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore after an extended stay on the International Space Station has been the subject of competing claims about the actions of the Trump and Biden administrations in bringing them home.
White House adviser Elon Musk, whose SpaceX company aided the astronauts’ return, said he had offered last year to bring the two astronauts home much sooner but the Biden administration declined for “political reasons.” NASA and space experts, including the two astronauts themselves, dispute that the decision was based on politics.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft may not be able to fly astronauts back to Earth
NASA is working on backup plans to return two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station on the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft, amid concerns over the vehicle’s flight readiness.
The trip was supposed to last just eight days — now it could go on as long as eight months, after NASA acknowledged serious problems with the capsule. This is its first crewed flight.
Boeing Starliner: Nasa astronauts maybe stuck on space station until next year, space agency says
Nasa astronauts stuck on the International Space Station because of problems with Boeing’s troubled Starliner might not come home until next year.
The space agency has been examining whether the two stranded astronauts could come home on board a SpaceX craft – in February of next year.
Nasa said it would also delay its next launch from this month until next, to allow more time to get to grips with the Starliner’s problems.
Why two astronauts are stuck in space
Nearly two months after launch and almost 50 days after they were initially supposed to return to Earth, two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station finally appear to be closer to their homeward voyage. That they were trapped by troubles with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft has only raised fresh doubts about the company’s technological and engineering capabilities as it weathers several major scandals.