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Astronauts
Last-minute technical trouble forced SpaceX to call off Monday's attempt to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA. The countdown was halted with just two minutes remaining until lift-off from Kennedy Space Centre. With just a split second to blast off, there was no time to deal with the problem, which involved the engine ignition system. SpaceX did not immediately say when it would try again. The next attempt could come as early as Tuesday, although poor weather was forecast. Strapped into the capsule atop the Falcon rocket were two NASA astronauts, one Russian cosmonaut and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates. When informed by SpaceX that the fuel would start to be drained from the rocket, commander Stephen Bowen replied: We'll be sitting here waiting. It was expected to take nearly an hour. Bowen and his crew including the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates assigned to a months long mission, Sultan al-Neyadi will replace another
Three Chinese astronauts aboard a spacecraft that docked with China's under-construction space station met with their colleagues on Wednesday, making it the country's first gathering of six astronauts in space. China on Tuesday successfully launched the spacecraft carrying three astronauts, Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, to its space station. The Shenzhou-15 spaceship, atop the Long March-2F Y15 carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Tuesday night, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The three space station occupants greeted the new three-member crew with warm hugs and then they took a group picture after the successful docking, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The space reunion kicked off the first in-orbit crew rotation in China's space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The six astronauts are scheduled to live and work together for about five days to complete planned
A space capsule hurtled toward the moon on Wednesday for the first time in 50 years, following a thunderous launch of NASA's mightiest rocket in a dress rehearsal for astronaut flights. No one was on board this debut flight, just three test dummies. The capsule is headed for a wide orbit around the moon and then a return to Earth with a Pacific splashdown in about three weeks. After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket roared skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of thrust and hitting 100 mph (160 kph) within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top and, less than two hours into the flight, busted out of Earth's orbit toward the moon. It was pretty overwhelming, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. We're going out to explore the heavens, and this is the next step." The moonshot follows nearly three months of vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing between its hangar and the pad. .
China on Thursday launched the core module for its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long-term. The Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony," module blasted into space atop a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan, marking another major advance for the country's space exploration program that has chalked up a series of accomplishments in recent months. The launch begins the first of 11 missions necessary to construct and provision the station and send up a three-person crew by the end of next year. The astronauts will live on the station for six months at a time. China's space programme has also recently brought back the first new lunar samples in more than 40 years and expects to land a probe and rover on the surface of Mars later next month.