Free Republic

NASA needs to decide by the end of August whether to return two astronauts to Earth aboard Boeing's Starliner, which flew them to the International Space Station (ISS), or bring them home on a SpaceX craft, officials said Wednesday. NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams blasted off for the ISS on Starliner on June 5 for what was meant to be an eight-day stay. But their return has been delayed by thruster malfunctions that came to light during the first crewed mission to the ISS by the Boeing spacecraft. NASA officials, at a press conference on Wednesday,...

The two astronauts who have already been stuck in space for more than 60 days may have to wait until early 2025 before they can return to Earth — following a trip to the International Space Station that was supposed to last just eight days. NASA also acknowledged that the astronauts, who arrived on the maiden voyage of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, may have to be rescued by the rival SpaceX CrewDragon, though that vessel won’t be ready until February. On Wednesday, NASA announced another delay in bringing home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams during a news conference, with the...

The first astronauts to fly Boeing's troubled Starliner are definitely not "stranded" at the International Space Station, NASA insisted Friday despite having no clear timeframe for bringing them home. In an unusually defensive press call, officials attempted to put a positive spin on where things currently stood after weeks of negative headlines due to the spaceship's delayed return. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off on June 5 following years of delays and safety scares affecting Starliner, as well as two aborted launch attempts that came as astronauts were strapped in and ready to go. They docked the following...

inadvertently set into motion by a Historic! all-female space walk crew. It is currently following a trajectory that precedes the International Space Station (ISS) by two to four minutes and is bright enough to be seen with only the aid of a pair of ordinary binoculars. NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara are currently on a science mission, living and working aboard the ISS microgravity laboratory. On Wednesday, Nov. 1, the pair completed an impressive 6-hour, 42-minute spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), during which they made some repairs, failed to make others, and lost a sack of equipment. On...

Russia has launched an uncrewed spacecraft to the Moon’s south pole — its first lunar mission in 47 years. If successful, the mission would be the first to land in the region, and could mark the start of considerable activity there involving multiple countries and private companies. -snip- Luna 25 launched aboard a Soyuz rocket at 11.11 p.m. UT on 10 August from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia — marking a move away from Russia’s dependence on Kazakhstan, which hosts its main launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It will take around 5 days for the spacecraft to reach a...

Barack Obama visited the White House for the first time since he left office on Tuesday. He was there to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, as well as to watch President Biden sign an executive order aimed at improving the law. Obama’s return created plenty of commotion, and for Fox News and the rest of the right-wing ecosphere, a fresh opportunity to cast Biden as a weaker, watered-down version of the former president. The Republican National Committee shared two clips of the visit that quickly went viral. The first shows an ostensibly confused Biden ambling around...

« Pocahontas speaks with a forked tongue | Jewish minority white-skinned privileged male named Harvard's president; racist diversifiers object » Share Share | Twitter | Facebook | 188 Comments | Print | Email February 23, 2018 New Lost in Space has a black Judy Robinson, a Hispanic Major West, and a female Dr. Smith By Ed Straker Netflix is remaking the campy 1960s series Lost in Space. As might be expected, the network is doing everything it can to ethnically cleanse white people and men from the cast, but it's a hard proposition, given that in the original series, the...

Nigerian astronaut lost in space needs $3m to get home - could be a scam The Anorak Inbox features this plea: Nigerian Astronaut is lost in space needs $3Million to come home ... Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home Dr. Bakare Tunde Astronautics Project Manager National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) Plot 555 Misau Street PMB 437 Garki, Abuja, FCT NIGERIA Dear Mr. Sir, REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the...

Explanation: The majestic Lagoon Nebula is filled with hot gas and the home for many young stars. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebula is so big and bright that it can be seen without a telescope toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago. The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the right of the open cluster's...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA is adrift without a coherent vision for where it should be going, an independent panel of space, science and engineering experts says. But the report by the National Academy of Sciences doesn't blame the space agency. It faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA clear direction. At the same time, the report said NASA is doing little to further the stated goal of the White House to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid. Panel member Bob Crippen, a retired NASA manager and astronaut who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he...

Mitt has been pushed on us by the GOPe. Mitt = Obama. Who would be a good alternative to Obama? Let's rally around someone to support.

Dick Tufeld, the man with the unique voice best known for Dr. Smith's nemesis and Will Robinson's best friend, the B-9 robot from Irwin Allen's Lost In Space, has passed away.

Priorities: NASA's chief says his mission is not to return us to space but to help the Muslim world feel good about its scientific contributions. The moon we should be landing on should not be crescent-shaped. At a time when the only missile programs in the Arab world, namely in Syria and Iran, are aimed at hitting Israel with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, NASA administrator Charles Bolden goes on Al Jazeera to tell the Muslim world his "foremost" goal was to make them feel good about their achievements in math, science and engineering.

Barack Obama has compared the impact the oil spill disaster will have on the U.S. national psyche to 9/11. The president said the ongoing environmental disaster will 'shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come.' His comments, made in an interview with U.S. news website Politico, were today criticised by relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001. Mr Obama said: 'In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment...

Competitiveness: The president spent Tax Day reassuring Florida voters that money will keep flowing to NASA. But in space as well as on Earth, we'll be an unexceptional nation. In space, no one can hear you scheme. President Obama's speech at the Kennedy Space Center will never be confused with President Kennedy's clarion call in 1961 to send an American to the moon within a decade. Rather it was an admission that we will now boldly go where no one wants to go.

Except in wartime, there has never been another government program that produced as much technological innovation as the U.S. space program, and there likely never will be. No other program has so successfully infused the economy, rallied the nation, inspired youngsters toward academic achievement or established the U.S. as the world leader in technology. In spite of this, on Feb. 1, President Barack Obama announced the cancellation of the Constellation program of exploration, leaving NASA, for the first time in history, without a specific mission. It is as if President Gerald Ford had canceled the space shuttle program in 1975,...

The dramatic upheaval in U.S. space exploration plans is having a ripple effect among NASA’s international and commercial partners, offering possibilities that were not there when the administration of then-President George W. Bush insisted on keeping the “critical path” from the surface of the Earth to the surface of the Moon inside the U.S. government. Beginning with President Barack Obama’s decision to extend U.S. funding for the International Space Station until at least 2020, NASA’s Fiscal 2011 budget request has given new life to old debates in Europe and elsewhere as the station partnership begins to understand what the greater...

WASHINGTON -- One Central Florida congressman has accused President Barack Obama of breaking the law for trying to cancel contract bids for the next generation of spaceflight. According to published reports, the administration notified contractors Friday it is cancelling contracts for the Constellation and Ares programs, because the president’s latest budget cuts funding for those programs. But U.S. Rep. Bill Posey said the administration can’t do that. Posey, whose district includes parts of Brevard, Osceola, Polk and Indian River counties, said cancelling contract bids is in violation of a provision Congress put in the Appropriations Bill last year. According to...

NASA, in response to President Obama's proposal to cancel the Constellation space exploration program, may be moving to wind down Constellation related work and cancel some contracts. NASA may be in violation of federal law by doing so.

...By the end of this year, there will be no shuttle, no U.S. manned space program, no way for us to get into space. We're not talking about Mars or the moon here. We're talking about low-Earth orbit, which the U.S. has dominated for nearly half a century and from which it is now retiring with nary a whimper. Our absence from low-Earth orbit was meant to last a few years, the interval between the retirement of the fatally fragile space shuttle and its replacement with the Constellation program (Ares booster, Orion capsule, Altair lunar lander) to take astronauts more...