Free Republic

Starliner has finally come home, more than three months after it launched on a planned 10-day mission.. Starliner's long space odyssey is over. The Boeing capsule, named Calypso, returned to Earth early this morning (Sept. 7), touching down in the New Mexico desert at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT; 11:01 p.m. local time on Sept. 6). "Great landing of Calyspo!" NASA astronaut Suni Williams said on the agency's webcast. "I don't think that could have gone better." The landing was long-delayed, coming more than three months into an orbital mission originally expected to last about 10 days. And, while Starliner...

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that its rival Boeing Co. is awarded government contracts in the space segment owing to their "armies of lobbyists" despite safety concerns around its commercial plane segment..."They have armies of lobbyists," Musk wrote in response to an X user who wondered why Boeing is awarded big contracts from the government despite the issues flagged with its passenger flight segment."Not sure why Boeing (given their track record with passenger flights) is given such contracts when SpaceX (given their track record with launches) is just vastly superior," Dhaval Shroff wrote. Shroff is also an employee...

In an article(opens in new tab) published on Monday (May 23), the website Space Explored alleged that Endeavour experienced an issue during its mission that could have had disastrous consequences during last month's homecoming...citing unnamed sources at NASA and SpaceX, claims that hypergolic propellant — fuels paired to instantly combust on contact — leaked into Endeavour's heat shield during the mission. (Dragon's Draco thrusters use hypergolic propellants.) NASA...has issued a statement refuting the heat shield claims... Steve Stich, manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, took some time to comment on the Crew-5 heat shield swap. Stich elaborated on the testing...