Just watched the solar sail pass by. It was cycling from barely visible to about magnitude +2 about every 30 seconds or so
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Additional information, links:
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That’s not to say the Starliner’s re-entry was without incident. During a post-landing news conference, Stich noted that one of the 12 thrusters on the Boeing podule didn’t perform as expected, and a redundant thruster was able to take over. The navigation system also temporarily had difficulty acquiring a GPS signal as the spacecraft came out of the plasma generated by reentry.
[…]
The elephant in the post-landing briefing was… what happens now? Boeing chose not to attend the briefing, and the aerospace giant’s veep and program manager for the commercial crew program Mark Nappi made a terse statement on Boeing’s Starliner page: "I want to recognize the work the Starliner teams did to ensure a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, re-entry, and landing.
[…]
NASA has yet to decide on the next steps. The issues seen during the mission will need to be addressed, and the first operational flight of Starliner has already slipped into the second half of 2025. A repeat of the test flight would ensure a further slip, likely into 2026.
[…]
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Good to know. They should check back in a few years, though.
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Another billionaire is in space today:
The guy will be sticking up through an open hatch for the so-called “spacewalk.” But I assume that the rest of the crew was chosen in part for their ability to resist the urge to give a little shove when the opportunity presents itself.
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Oopsie!
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They need to remember to take a fire extinguishet…
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Why are you guys humming Space Oddity?
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NASA engineers play space surgeon in bid to unclog Voyager 1’s arteries
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We asked Dr Garry Hunt, one of the original Voyager scientists for his thoughts on the latest engineering feat. He replied with one word: “Brilliant.”
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Since it was all about power management and not leaving things turned off long enough for bad things to happen wasn’t the game they were playing a bit more like “Five Nights at Freddy’s” than “Operation”?
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SpaceX blasts being stuck in bureaucratic orbit as Starship approval slips
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The FAA must follow the rules, which can work in SpaceX’s favor, such as the company being permitted to resume Falcon 9 launches after mishaps, but they can also work against Elon Musk’s rocketeers.
We’re sure Musk won’t hold any of this against the FAA should he find himself appointed head of a “government efficiency” task force by Donald Trump, should the latter win the US election this November as the Republican presidential candidate.
Oh no, wait. Elon is losing his mind over the FAA holdup on his social network Twitter, and as well as being his weird self, is out and out backing Donald Trump.
[…]
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Undeterred by the problems of its Starliner crewed space capsule, Boeing has a plan to do a bit of uncrewed science – launching a satellite upon which it will run a demo of quantum entanglement swapping that could help enable secure comms.
Boeing says it plans to send the satellite, dubbed “Q4S,” to orbit sometime in 2026 on a self-funded mission to demonstrate the feasibility of quantum communications - at least in the West.
[…]
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I really want to be excited for this, but just can’t get over the Douchebaggery
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