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55 Years Ago: Star Trek Final Episode Airs, Relationship with NASA Endures

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NASA to Change How It Points Hubble Space Telescope

NASA Astronauts Practice Next Giant Leap for Artemis 

Former Astronaut David R. Scott

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Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas

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Resultados científicos revolucionarios en la estación espacial de 2023

NASA is taking a steppingstone approach to human exploration in space. Building on NASA’s 60 years of exploration experience and more than 20 years of continuous human presence on the International Space Station in low Earth orbit, we will extend humanity farther into space than ever before. The International Space Station has built the foundation to conduct complex operations in space, perform research in a microgravity environment, foster a growing space economy, and forge international partnerships toward a common goal. Artemis missions will establish our long-term presence at the Moon as astronauts explore more of the lunar surface than ever before to learn about the origins of the solar system and prepare for humanity’s next giant leap: human missions to Mars.

Quick Facts

The space station has been continuously occupied since November 2000.

Missions to the Moon are about 1,000 times farther from Earth than missions to the International Space Station.

Thanks to nearly 20 years of continuous human habitation on the space station, future life support systems for Mars can be designed with a 36% reduction in mass.

An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the International Space Station.

Learn more about NASA's destinations for human exploration from the orbiting laboratory in low-Earth orbit, to Artemis missions at the Moon, and leading to the boldest mission yet: sending humans to Mars.

Astronauts on the orbiting laboratory are helping us prove many of the technologies and communications systems needed for human missions in deep space, including to the Moon and Mars. The space station also advances our understanding of how the body reacts and changes in space and how to protect astronaut health.

Earth's Moon

Artemis missions will collaborate with commercial and international partners to demonstrate innovative technologies on the lunar surface and around the Moon for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars. NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and inspire a new generation of explorers.

Engineers and scientists around the country are developing the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars and safely return home from humanity's next giant leap. NASA is working to address the challenges of living farther from Earth, such as using existing resources, options for disposing of trash, and more.

Commercial Destinations in Low Earth Orbit

NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program is supporting the development of commercially owned and operated low Earth orbit destinations from which NASA, along with other customers, can purchase services and stimulate the growth of commercial activities close to Earth. 

Architecture

Moon to mars architecture.

NASA's Moon to Mars architecture represents the hardware and operations needed for human missions to the Moon and Mars, and how they function together as a system.

The architecture is not a mission, a manifest, or a set of requirements, but it does define the elements — rockets, spacecraft, rovers, spacesuits, communications relays, and more — that will be incrementally developed and delivered to the Moon and Mars for long-term, human-led scientific discovery in deep space. 

That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind. 

Neil Armstrong

Apollo astronaut

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Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans…

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Even the closest exoplanets are too far away to visit. But... what if they weren't? We worked with NASA scientists, futurists and artists to imagine exoplanet tourism. Choose your adventure with guided tours, in English and Spanish. Read along or turn your sound up as you scroll through.

Your name will fly around the Moon!

Artemis I will be the first uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The flight paves the way toward landing the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon!

We’ve finished collecting names for Artemis I and are working on loading them onto the Orion spacecraft! If you’ve submitted your name, it is included on a flash drive that will fly aboard Orion on Artemis I later this year. Artemis Website for updates and stay tuned for launch of the mission, or sign up for the newsletter to receive NASA updates in your inbox.

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All eyes will be on the historic Launch Complex 39B when Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) lift off for the first time from NASA's modernized Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.

Artemis I will be the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon for decades to come.

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13 Things Tourists Should Know Before Traveling to Space, According to Astronauts

We asked the pros for their best tips on handling a first trip to space.

For most of human spaceflight history, those lucky enough to reach the stars were professional astronauts hired and trained by government agencies around the world. But since the early 2000s, when seven intrepid travelers paid millions to spend a few days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), space tourism has begun to take off. We're now on the cusp of a new era of space exploration, with commercial companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launching spacecraft capable of taking paying travelers beyond the Earth's surface.

We spoke with former NASA astronauts Leroy Chiao and Scott Parazynski to get their tips for first-time spaceflight participants. During his 15 years with NASA, Chiao participated in four missions — three aboard the space shuttle and one to the ISS, in which he served as commander. Parazynski worked at NASA for 17 years, flying five shuttle missions throughout his career. Read on to discover what they think aspiring space tourists need to know.

Your only job on the flight will be to kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

If you're taking a suborbital flight, which is what companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have offered, your ride will be a quick up-and-down to reach space, rather than a full orbit of the Earth. The short journey is relatively easy compared to what professional astronauts experience. For starters, you won't need to worry about flying your spacecraft. That's all up to the spaceflight provider. "You won't have any responsibility other than to enjoy the experience — and not kick anyone else in the head," says Parazynski. "Their obligations on the flight are pretty straightforward."

As such, the training programs for suborbital space tourist experiences are relatively minimal, perhaps only a few days in length at most. "The downside of not having a lot of training is that you don't have the confidence that comes from lots of training," says Parazynski. "Contrast that with the training I had on the space shuttle, where we trained for hundreds and hundreds of hours for launching in space. If something were to go awry, we would know exactly what to do and our hearts wouldn't skip a beat."

So, other than learning to place your complete trust in your spaceflight provider, Parazynski recommends talking to people who have flown before in order to ease any nervousness. Chiao agrees: "The best advice I can give on launch — and it's easy to say, harder to do — is to try to relax and enjoy the whole process," he says. "Pay attention during your training, talk to other people who've been there if you can. And actually, you might be surprised — it's quite calm!"

Make sure you’re physically and mentally fit.

"I think people should treat this as their Olympics or Super Bowl. This is a really big life experience, and though you don't need to be an Olympic athlete or a Super Bowl champion to fly in space, it helps to be fit," says Parazynski. After all, your body will be experiencing quite a range of new sensations during your spaceflight."

But it's not just about physical fitness — mental fitness is key, too. "I think through fitness comes mental acuity as well," says Parazynski. "The more you can be engaged in the experience, the more you'll remember of it — it'll be more impactful to you."

The G-forces experienced on launch and reentry are not as intense as you might expect.

If you've ever watched a livestream of an astronaut launch, caught any Hollywood flick about space travel, or ridden Mission: Space at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park, you know that during launch, astronauts get crushed back into their seats. (And, actually, during reentry, too!) They're experiencing strong G-forces, or a sensation of weight felt during acceleration. It's the same feeling you get when you speed up quickly in a car or zoom through a loop or a sharp curve on a roller coaster, but during a rocket launch, those forces are stronger and more sustained. While the experience might seem a little terrifying, the pros say it's quite manageable.

"The G-forces aren't nearly as bad as they show in the movies," says Chiao. "If you're good enough to be given medical approval to go on a trip like this, you're not going to have any problems handling the G-forces." He also notes that you'll likely go through centrifugal runs during your training to prep for the sensation — you'll be strapped into a spinning machine that lets you experience strong G-forces, just like that spinning amusement park ride where you're pressed against the wall and the floor drops.

But to make launch and reentry as comfortable on your body as possible, you'll want to physically relax your muscles so you don't fight against the G-forces. "If you relax and let your body sink into the launch couch, you're going to tolerate it much better," says Chiao. "If you're rigid, that's where you might hurt yourself. And make sure your limbs and arms are inside of the couch."

To prep for weightlessness, you should book a zero-gravity flight.

While it takes quite a bit of effort (and time and money) to get into space to experience weightlessness, you can actually experience the sensation right here on Earth — or rather, just slightly above it. All you need to do is book a zero-gravity flight , where a plane flies in a series of parabolas (or arch-like shapes) during which passengers experience simulated weightlessness through free fall.

It's physically the same as skydiving or even riding a roller coaster, but in those two instances, your senses tell you you're actually falling. "When you're in a zero-G airplane, the airplane is falling at the same rate you are, so you're floating inside the airplane," says Chiao. "That's what it's like in a spacecraft when you get up into space and the engines cut off."

Through commercial companies like the Zero Gravity Corporation , anyone who can spare the cost of a ticket can experience weightlessness — and anyone who's planning on making a trip to space should definitely give it a go. "If they have the means, they should get on a zero-G flight before they go on a suborbital flight," says Parazynski. "It would take some of the mystery out of 'what am I going to feel like?' and 'how do I move?'"

Learning how to scuba dive is good weightlessness training, too.

While being underwater isn't exactly like floating in space, it's a pretty good way to practice moving around in a weightless environment. In fact, NASA even has a life-sized replica of the ISS set inside a giant pool, so astronauts can train for spacewalks underwater.

"Moving in weightlessness comes to you very quickly when you spend some time underwater," says Parazynski. "Get neutrally buoyant underwater and very gently try and move yourself along the ocean floor or bottom of your pool. It doesn't take a lot of force, but it does take a lot of thought."

Come up with a game plan for your few minutes in space.

On suborbital flights, you're only going to have a few minutes in weightlessness, so you should plan exactly how you want to spend your time up there. Figure out if you'd like to bring a memento like a family photo or college pennant for a fun picture. (U.S. Naval Academy graduates and former astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford famously put a "Beat Army" sign in the window of their Gemini VI spacecraft, so there's a long tradition of this.) Decide in advance if you want to attempt what spaceflight veterans call "stupid astronaut tricks," like flips or spins. But most importantly, budget time to look out the window.

"The most important thing I would tell future astronauts is to savor the view out the window," says Parazynski. "It's, for lack of a better term, a God's-eye view, and so few people have ever had a chance to see it. It's really a beautiful thing to be hovering in space and looking down at your planet."

Don’t worry about taking your own photos.

"As far as taking photographs, I don't know that I would recommend it," says Chiao. "You're not going to be very good at it, first of all, because it takes a little bit of practice to get used to zero-G. Don't waste that time taking photos. Get your memories, look out those windows, and enjoy the whole experience of being weightless." Plus, given the price tag of these spaceflights, we're pretty sure that your operator will provide you with photos and videos of your journey anyway.

When you get into zero gravity, you might feel a little dizzy.

The body functions a bit differently when you remove gravity from the equation for a sustained period of time, and side effects may include dizziness and nausea. "You're going to feel full-headed because there's no longer gravity pulling fluid down into your legs," says Chiao. "And so all that fluid comes up into your torso, and you can feel it right away. It feels kind of like you're standing on your head."

But the good news is, on suborbital flights you might be able to avoid the worst of it. "The adrenaline and excitement are going to make you do OK at first, and by the time you might start feeling bad, it's time to strap back in and come back down," says Chiao.

If you’re spending a few days in space, be prepared for some bumps and bruises.

On a suborbital flight, you won't have a ton of time in space, so you won't really have to worry about acclimating to zero gravity. However, some private spaceflight companies are looking to send their clients up into orbit for longer stays and there are even talks of a space hotel within Voyager Station . If you're going to spend a few days or even a few weeks up in space, you're probably going to bump your head more than once, no matter how much you've trained for the experience.

"It's really funny watching rookie astronauts the first day or two up on a mission," says Parazynski. "We called them the bull in a china shop. They push off with full force and they crack their skull or bang their knee."

You’re also going to make a mess.

Doing routine tasks like brushing your teeth (you can't just spit your toothpaste into a sink), clipping your fingernails (you don't want them floating off into your space station), and going to the bathroom (have you ever thought about how to use a toilet without gravity?) are all very different experiences in weightlessness. Inevitably, you might have a few mishaps early on in your trip.

"Just sitting down for a meal, you put your fork down, and it's gone in 30 seconds," says Parazynski. "You may find it two days later in the cabin air cleaner because that's where the air currents have taken it." Luckily, a lost fork is an easy mess to clean up — and the situation can be prevented by tethering it down. Other messes are a different story.

"As far as using the restroom, that's what you need to pay attention to during your training. The toilet is not particularly simple and you have to be careful," says Chiao. (In case you were wondering, space toilets use airflow to guide things where they're supposed to go.) "But be prepared to make some messes," says Chiao. "And everybody has to clean up their own mess."

If you’re going to do a spacewalk, the stakes are much higher for you and your crew.

If you want to zip around space with a jetpack like George Clooney in "Gravity," sorry, but chances are that's not going to happen any time soon. Most private astronauts will be safely tucked inside their craft for the duration of their flight.

Unlike suborbital flights, future orbital flights with a spacewalk will require extensive training, given that spacewalks are inherently more dangerous than simply riding in a vessel. "If you're careless with your tethers and you float off into the void, there's not a whole lot anyone can come do for you," says Parazynski. It's possible that a crewmate may be able to head out to rescue you, but then you're endangering their life as well. "It's paramount for a spacewalker to think not just about their own health and well-being and their experience, but also that of their crewmates," he says.

If you’re in a capsule, be prepared for a bumpy landing.

While the only way up to space is by rocket, there are two ways to come back down: via a winged vehicle, like the space shuttle or Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, or a capsule, like Apollo, Soyuz, and Blue Origin's New Shepard. The experiences are quite different, as winged vehicles land like an airplane on a runway, whereas capsules descend beneath parachutes onto land or water. While both experience a range of G-forces during reentry, capsules have a bit of a rougher ride, particularly at the very end.

"When the parachute comes out, you can expect to get jostled around a fair amount, so that can be disorienting," says Chiao. "Then, whether you're hitting the water or the ground, you're gonna get a good bump. There are shock-absorbing mechanisms, of course, that make it not too big a deal. But on Soyuz, you smack the ground pretty darn hard. It was kind of surprising!"

It’ll be worth every penny.

Sure, it's going to cost a small fortune to go into space as a tourist — for now, that's somewhere in the ballpark of several hundred thousand dollars for a suborbital flight and millions of dollars for longer-duration orbital stays. But ask any astronaut, and they're sure to tell you it'll be worth the investment.

"What I would tell prospective astronauts is that it's going to change their lives forever," says Parazynski. "It's a perspective that can't be captured in emotion on film. Even in 3D IMAX, there's no way to capture the way it's going to make you feel, the connectedness you feel to planet Earth, and the awe you have when you look out into the universe."

Related Articles

How NASA Is Prepping Mars Astronauts to Cope With Isolation and Other Extremes

M ars is between 33 and 249 million miles away from Earth, depending on the time of year you make the journey. That comes out to about two years of travel.

Once you get there, conditions on the Red Planet are brutal, with temperatures ranging from around -248 degrees Fahrenheit to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Just getting there is a feat that seems difficult to imagine, yet once astronauts make the trek, they're in for an intense workload.

According to NASA, plans are in the works for travel to Mars as early as the 2030s and it will likely take that long or longer to prepare astronauts for what's ahead. 

Communication with Earth

One of the first concerns when it comes to preparing astronauts for travel to Mars is understanding what's possible when it comes to communicating back to Earth. How will astronauts making the trip communicate back to NASA as well as family back home?

According to Dayna Ise , director of the Mars Campaign Office within NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, we can't do anything about the 20-minute communication delay, which will always exist because that's the speed of light.

But there are also longer delays that occur when Mars is opposite Earth in the solar system and can create a two-week delay in communication, which, as one might imagine, becomes too much when trying to communicate back home in an emergency.

"A two-week blackout period is much more concerning," says Ise. NASA is working to create a relay system of sorts with satellites in Mars' orbit and at different range points in the solar system that could reduce this delay. 

Read More: Why Haven't Humans Reached Mars?

Mentally Preparing Astronauts for Mars

Besides communication, mentally preparing astronauts for isolation and the possible lack of communication is also key.  

"Through all of human history, there's been asynchronous communication, for example, when early explorers were visiting another continent, and it took weeks or months for letters to get back home. But that's not something we're used to anymore," says Ise. "As a society, we're used to synchronous communication all the time."

To test and prepare for this sort of lifestyle, NASA designed the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) to simulate a Mars habitat at NASA's Johnson Center in Houston, Texas.

Four crew members have lived for over a year inside CHAPEA in an effort to mimic what life would be like. Equipped with a 1,700 square foot living and working space that includes "private crew quarters, a kitchen, and dedicated areas for medical, recreation, fitness, work, and crop growth activities, as well as a technical work area and two bathrooms."

The goal of CHAPEA is to look at the impacts of isolation, environmental stressors, equipment failure, and workloads on the crew's mental and physical health.

Researchers can also look at how isolation impacts scientists living in Antarctica who are physically isolated from loved ones for long periods of time, especially during the Arctic winters.

Additionally, NASA has had crews on the International Space Station for long periods of time. In fact, astronaut Peggy Whitson holds the record for the longest period in space at 665 days, which can give us a good idea of what that does to people both mentally and physically. Astronaut Frank Rubio holds the record for the longest space flight at 371 days.

"The idea is that you build on all these ideas that you learn from CHAPEA, Antarctica, and ISS to get a better understanding until you get to a point where you really feel you're ready to send folks to Mars," says Ise.

Read More: Long Mars Voyage Could Raise Stress Levels

Lunar Exploration to Prepare Astronauts for Mars

Artemis III is set to land on the Moon's South Pole in 2025. Part of this mission on the Moon is to look into what long-term habitation in outer space might look like through Artemis' South Pole Base Camp . The hope is that much of that knowledge can translate to life on Mars. In order to live on the Moon, the crew will have to wear spacesuits and spend ample time indoors, for example.

While spacesuits on Mars will be different from those on the Moon, this lunar landing will allow for a better understanding of long-term life suited up. NASA is currently working on the preliminary designs for the Mars spacesuits, says Ise.

One of the biggest differences is the dust on the Moon versus Mars. While the Moon's dust is sharp and presents issues like cutting holes in spacesuits, Mars' red dust contains chemicals like perchlorates, which are toxic. Additionally, Mars has an atmosphere, a mixture of gases that surround the planet, while the Moon does not. In Mars' case , it's mostly made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon gases.

Life on Mars is Martian, not human, meaning that astronauts have to prepare for every aspect of life in ways that can be difficult to grasp. It's the full spectrum, from life indoors to strenuous jaunts in a spacesuit to the mental health repercussions of isolation. Still, we're getting closer and the Red Planet doesn't seem as foreign or "Martian" as it once did. 

Read More: What Would a Trip to Mars Look Like For a Tourist?

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Director of the Mars Campaign Office within NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. Dayna Ise

NASA. Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog

NASA. Station Record Holders

NASA. Atmosphere

Sara Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work appears in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and many more. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She's also a candidate for a master's degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University, (expected graduation 2023).

10+ Things to Do with NASA at Home

A select collection of NASA resources to fill the days and nights while everyone is at home.

Nasa stem activities for families.

Launch rockets, build hovercraft, create a winning science project and more. These science, technology, engineering and math activities are fun for the whole family. Check back for regular updates: https://www.nasa.gov/stem-at-home-for-students-k-4.html

Never miss a Moon phase. Build this NASA Moon phase calculator and the lunar phases will be at your fingertips. It's just one free activity created by NASA to inspire and educate.

More Activities and Resources

› NASA Space Place › Teachable Moments › NASA Wavelength (searchable lesson database) › JPL Education for Teachers › JPL Education for Students › NASA & PBS Kids: Mission Solar System › All About the Moon

Things to Watch

NASA's new Perseverance rover, set to launch this summer, will land on Mars in 2021. The Mars in a Minute animated series that brings you up to speed on the Red Planet is just one of several NASA video products available on demand.

More Video Channels

› NASA eClips › NASA Space Place › JPL Education › NASA STEM

Free Range Exploration

Experience Earth and our solar system, the universe and the spacecraft exploring them in real-time, using real NASA data, with these free immersive apps for Mac, PC and mobile devices.

› NASA's Eyes on the Solar System

Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

So far, we’ve discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets. Many of these planets beyond our own solar system are … weird. Super-Earths (bigger than Earth and smaller than Neptune) and hot Jupiters (gas giants that orbit really close to their stars) abound. You can visit some of these real worlds and see what conditions might be like, based on NASA’s science at our Exoplanet Travel Bureau. We have 360-degree visualizations of planet surfaces like one of the seven rocky worlds of the TRAPPIST-1 system and the lava-covered planet called 55 Cancri e. What would the view be from a potential moon of Kepler-16b? You’d have two shadows from the planet’s two suns! Viewable on desktop, mobile and optimized for viewers like Google cardboard. While you’re there, download the free travel posters .

› NASA Exoplanet Exploration

Listen and Read

Plenty of great NASA stories are available in our collections of podcasts and e-Books .

This Week's Suggestions

› Gravity Assist (Podcast) › Houston, We Have a Podcast › Earth at Night (e-Book) › The Saturn System Through the Eyes of Cassini (e-Book)

Do-It-Yourself Science

NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and the public. Volunteers (citizen scientists like Katharina ) have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries. Want to work on some real NASA science? Use the links below to get started. Many projects with can be done by anyone, anywhere, with just a cellphone or laptop.

Citizen Science Projects You Can Do at Home

› NASA Citizen Scientist Homepage › JunoCam : Download raw pictures from Jupiter and use them to create your own imagery. › Snapshot Wisconsin : Track wildlife by classifying images captured on trail cameras › Stardust@Home : Look for interstellar particles in aerogel from the Stardust sample return mission › Globe Observer : Make environmental observations that compliment NASA satellite data. › Backyard Worlds : Search beyond Neptune for new brown dwarfs stars planets › Landslide Reporter : Find landslides online and submit them to a NASA database › Floating Forests : Help study kelp forests in oceans › Penguin Populations : Help understand and model present and future penguin populations › Sungrazer Project : Discover a comet as it dives toward the Sun › Cosmic : Help train a computer to think like a scientist for future Mars missions

Close to Home: NASA in the 50 States

Did you know that all 50 states are helping NASA explore space ? Find out how your state and others contribute to space exploration and then test your knowledge with these three questions:

• Which state has the most NASA centers?
• Which three states fall in the path of totality for both the 2017 and 2024 total solar eclipses?
• Which state would be a good place to spot the aurora borealis (also known as northern lights)?

› NASA in the 50 States

Take a Break!

If you made it this far, you deserve a break. Take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the distant worlds of our solar system .

› View the image feature

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Aerospace Trailblazer: Shirley Holland-Hunt’s Visionary Leadership Transforms Space Exploration

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Starliner Sets Off on 1st Flight With NASA Astronauts Aboard

After two previous launch attempts were called off, the Boeing-built spacecraft was headed to the International Space Station. It will stay there until at least June 14.

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• Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA via Reuters
• The Starliner crew prepares for takeoff. NASA, via Reuters
• The Starliner launching. Chris O'Meara/Associated Press
• Rocket boosters expend and drop off. NASA, via Reuters
• 15,000 miles per hour. NASA, via Reuters
• The Starliner crew before takeoff. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Kenneth Chang

Here’s what to know about Starliner’s flight.

After two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space , two NASA astronauts finally headed to orbit on Wednesday in a vehicle built by Boeing, the aerospace giant . The 15-foot-wide capsule, Starliner, provides NASA with an additional option for flying crews to and from the International Space Station, more than a decade after the space shuttles were retired. The launch is the latest step in NASA’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.

Starliner’s first trip with astronauts on board comes four years and six days after SpaceX, the other company that NASA has hired to provide astronaut rides, launched its first mission with astronauts aboard . A series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying on the Boeing vehicle, while SpaceX, once seen as an upstart, has since flown 13 crews to orbit.

Here’s what you need to know about the flight:

At 10:52 a.m. Eastern time, the engines of an Atlas V rocket ignited, lifting the Starliner spacecraft on an arcing path to space . Wednesday’s countdown at a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., was flawless, proceeding without a hitch.

The only issue that has popped up since launching is with a “sublimator” that provides cooling in Starliner during the ascent to orbit. The device used more water than expected. Officials said it will not affect the current mission. After reaching orbit, Starliner switched to a different cooling system, a radiator, as planned.

The two crew members on board Starliner are Butch Wilmore, the commander, and Suni Williams, the pilot. They are experienced NASA astronauts; Mr. Wilmore has spent 167 days in space, and Ms. Williams 322. They will spend about a day in orbit before docking with the space station on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. They will stay until at least June 14 , maybe longer, depending on weather at the landing sites and testing of the spacecraft.

Starliner is years behind schedule, as the work by Boeing and NASA to confirm that the spacecraft was safe to fly stretched far longer than expected. Technical pitfalls included inadequate software testing, corroded propellant valves, flammable tape, a key component in the parachute system that turned out to be weaker than designed, and, most recently, a helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Boeing fixed and studied the problems, allowing Starliner to get back to the launchpad.

The delays have left Boeing facing more than $1.4 billion in unexpected charges . The launch attempt comes during a tough 2024 for the aerospace giant . Just days into the year, a panel on the body of a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight . The pilots safely landed the plane, and there were no major injuries, but the episode has had widespread repercussions for the company, particularly its aviation division.

A ‘milestone’ flight carried two NASA astronauts in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

After two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two NASA astronauts finally headed to orbit on Wednesday in a vehicle built by Boeing, the aerospace giant.

The first trip of Starliner, a 15-foot-wide capsule, with astronauts on board comes four years and six days after SpaceX, the other company that NASA has hired to provide astronaut rides, launched its first mission with astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. SpaceX, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total.

The long awaited flight of the Boeing vehicle is the latest step in NASA’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.

“This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator said during a news conference after the launch.

When Starliner arrives at the space station on Thursday, it will join a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule already docked there. NASA officials have steadfastly said that they want to have two different American spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit.

“We always like to have a backup,” Mr. Nelson said. “That makes it safer for our astronauts.”

If the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide some good news for Boeing, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel of an Alaska Airlines jet blew out during a flight earlier this year.

The space division of Boeing has also been under pressure, with work on Starliner stretching years longer than either the company or NASA had expected. Technical pitfalls included inadequate software testing, corroded propellant valves, flammable tape and a key component in the parachute system that turned out to be weaker than expected.

A few minutes before launch, Butch Wilmore, the mission commander, said: “Let’s put some fire in this rocket. Let’s push it to the heavens.”

Suni Williams, the other member of the crew who serves as pilot, added, “Let’s go, Calypso, take us to space and back,” referring to the name she had given the capsule, after the ship used by the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.

“Suni and I are honored to share this dream of spaceflight with each and every one of you. So with that, let’s get going, and let’s put some fire in this rocket and let’s push it to the heavens, while these tough Americans have prepared it to be.” “Let’s go, Calypso. Take us to space and back.”

At 10:52 a.m. Eastern time, the engines of an Atlas V rocket ignited, lifting the Starliner spacecraft on an arcing path to space. The launch and early parts of today’s flight in orbit provided a welcome relief, unfolding smoothly.

“Houston, Starliner. “Roger.”

“I’m smiling, believe me,” said Mark Nappi, the Boeing official in charge of Starliner. “But it’s a little bit of controlled emotion, because there’s a lot of phases to this mission. And we just completed the first one.”

“You got a good throttle up.” “Good throttle.” “Good SRB burnout.” “Good SRB.”

A minor glitch involved a system that provides cooling during the ride to orbit. The cooling system, known as a sublimator, used a bit more water than expected. Once in orbit, the spacecraft switched to a different cooling system, a radiator, and while engineers will investigate what happened, it will not affect the mission.

Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams are scheduled to dock with the station at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday.

Along the way, Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams will take time to test out manually flying the spacecraft, something that is usually not necessary except in emergencies. The life support systems will also be fully checked.

The astronauts will then spend at least eight days at the space station before returning to Earth. The mission has 87 test objectives altogether. “There’s a lot of, I’ll call them ergonomic types of flight test objectives,” Mr. Nappi said. “How do the seats fit? How do the suits work? How do the displays look?”

After the mission, NASA and Boeing will review data from the flight to complete certification of Starliner. The spacecraft would then be ready to begin once-a-year operational flights to ferry NASA crews for six-month stays at the space station. Each Starliner capsule — Boeing has two for orbital missions — is designed for 10 missions.

The path to Wednesday’s flight was years in the making.

In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX , the rocket company run by Elon Musk, to build replacements for the space shuttles that had taken astronauts to and from the space station before being retired in 2011. NASA had started paying Russia to fly its astronauts to orbit on Soyuz rockets.

Congress was skeptical, repeatedly cutting money that NASA had sought for the commercial crew program. At the time, SpaceX was ascendant, but was not the dominant force it has become today in the rocket launch industry. The selection of Boeing helped reassure lawmakers that NASA was making a sound investment.

NASA originally said Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon could be ready by 2017.

Both companies took longer than planned, a not uncommon occurrence in the aerospace industry.

But in December 2019, Boeing appeared to be in the homestretch. Then a test of Starliner with no astronauts on board went awry because of software problems, and a planned docking was called off. NASA labeled the flight a “high-visibility close call,” because the software flaws could have led to the destruction of the spacecraft if they had not been fixed before re-entry.

Boeing and NASA decided to repeat the uncrewed test, but that test was delayed by corroded propellant valves and Starliner did not launch again until May 2022.

More issues then emerged. Protective tape that was wrapped around wiring insulation turned out to be flammable, and a key but weak component in the parachute system could have broken if Starliner’s three parachutes did not deploy properly.

Those delays cost Boeing $1.4 billion, and while Starliner remained on the ground, SpaceX launched nine crewed missions for NASA (one, Crew-8, is currently docked at the station) and four additional commercial missions with non-NASA passengers aboard.

This year’s round of launch attempts started on May 6. That flight was scuttled by a misbehaving valve on the Atlas V rocket. A small helium leak was then discovered in the Starliner’s propulsion system, leading to several weeks of investigation.

A second launch attempt on Saturday ticked down to 3 minutes and 50 seconds before liftoff, until the computers that autonomously handle the final parts of the launch sequence encountered a problem and halted the countdown.

Over the next few days, technicians replaced a faulty power component, setting the stage for the successful launch on Wednesday.

Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.

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The post-launch news conference is over. For the next day, you won’t see any live video of Starliner. Although there are cameras aboard, there is no communications system for sending it back to Earth in real time. Instead, it will have to be downloaded after Starliner docks at the International Space Station. NASA TV coverage of the spacecraft’s arrival will start at 11:15 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday. Docking is scheduled for 12:15 p.m.

Starliner will remain at the International Space Station until at least June 14. It might stay longer depending on weather at the landing site and how testing of the spacecraft goes.

“So far, the vehicle is doing great,” said Steve Stich, the program manager at NASA for the commercial crew program.

The only issue that has popped up so far during the spaceflight is with the “sublimator,” which provided cooling in Starliner during its ascent to orbit. It used more water than expected. That’s something to investigate, but it’s not a big problem that affects the current mission. Once in orbit, Starliner switched to a different cooling system, a radiator, as planned.

A NASA post-launch news conference is beginning. “This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, says.

Starliner is currently at a slightly lower altitude than the International Space Station, which means it is moving faster than the space station and catching up. As it gets closer, it will raise its orbit to match speed.

Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, took some potshots at Boeing and Starliner last month. Today, he was more complimentary .

Congratulations on a successful launch! https://t.co/DiwBo6LheW — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2024

Michael Roston

Musk also has another major spaceflight on his mind. Early on Thursday morning, his company SpaceX will conduct the fourth test flight of Starship, its large, next-generation reusable spacecraft that NASA is relying on to get to the moon. You can look back at the third flight here .

NASA has concluded its official live coverage of the Starliner launch. But if you can’t get enough, NASA will be providing ongoing video coverage of Wilmore and Williams’ flight to the International Space Station, which will take about 24 hours. Docking is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. on Thursday.

This mission is essentially a shakedown flight to verify that the spacecraft is ready for humans. Some systems, notably life support and manual flying, cannot be tested until astronauts are aboard. NASA will use data from this flight to complete certification. If all goes well, that will be finished later this year, and the first operational flight will be in Feburary.

The burn has completed. Flight controllers at launch control are clapping and shaking hands. Starliner is now on its way to the International Space Station. It is scheduled to dock there tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. Eastern time.

Starliner’s orbital insertion burn has started.

Suni Williams is the first woman to take part in the test flight of an American spacecraft taking astronauts to space for the first time. The first four such test flights — Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the space shuttles — preceded any American women going to space. The fifth, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in 2020, carried Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. Starliner is the sixth such spacecraft.

How NASA ended up paying for private rides to orbit.

NASA owned the space shuttles.

The shuttles were built by Rockwell International, but NASA’s engineers largely dictated the design, and once the shuttles were delivered, they became the property of the U.S. government — launched and operated by NASA.

That was NASA’s old way of doing business.

Nowadays, the space agency’s human spaceflight program is trying to do more by doing less on its own.

The Boeing Starliner is the latest step in that direction. NASA does not own Starliner but is, in essence, renting the spacecraft from Boeing for about a week so that two NASA astronauts can get to the space station.

The rationale is that private companies can come up with innovative solutions that are better and cheaper, and the companies can then sell those same products to customers other than NASA — a win-win.

That formula has certainly proved to work with SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk. When SpaceX first won a NASA contract, it had not yet successfully sent anything to space. NASA was key in the development of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which not only now launches cargo and astronauts for NASA but also has captured a domineering slice of the commercial satellite-launching business.

In 2014, NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX flew its first crewed mission in 2020 and has now launched people to orbit 13 times, including four commercial missions for non-NASA customers.

For Boeing, however, Starliner has turned out to be a long-delayed, costly endeavor, even though NASA is paying more to Boeing than to SpaceX. Back in 2010, Boeing announced that it planned to fly space tourists to the space station. Now, Boeing says it is focused on NASA’s business — six operational flights after the test mission.

“The private astronaut missions are of an interest later in the decade,” said Mark Nappi, program manager of the Starliner program at Boeing.

Despite the mixed results for the companies, NASA has expanded its commercial approach. SpaceX and Blue Origin , the rocket company started by Jeff Bezos, have contracts to build landers to carry NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon in the coming years.

NASA is also looking farther out into the solar system. Last month, the space agency commissioned nine companies to study how they might provide services for future science missions to Mars.

During the launch, the astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, used paper checklists, which are simpler and easier to read than digital versions. Now that they’re in orbit, they’ve switched to tablets.

Some of the astronauts’ luggage is not going to make it to the space station.

On Friday, NASA announced some shuffling of the cargo that Starliner is taking to the space station.

The astronauts on board, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will give up some personal items during their short stay in orbit to make room for a spare part for a water recycling system on the International Space Station.

The space station receives regular deliveries of supplies and equipment. Much of it arrives packed into cargo vehicles launched from the United States and Russia. That includes a Russian Progress spacecraft that docked Saturday morning with about three tons of food, fuel and other supplies.

Other times, items are packed along with astronaut crews headed to space.

On Wednesday last week, a pump failed in the system on the space station that collects and processes the astronauts’ urine, the first step in turning it back into drinkable water. That pump had been expected to last until the fall, and a replacement was set to be delivered by a cargo spacecraft in August.

“It failed a little bit early, which put us in a position where we’d have to store an awful lot of urine,” Dana Weigel, NASA’s program manager for the space station, said during a news conference on Friday. “Obviously, adding two more crew members to that further constrains the storage capability we have on board.”

The pump equipment, which weighs about 150 pounds, was flown to the Kennedy Space Center and loaded onto Starliner. Two suitcases of clothing and toiletries for Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams were removed to make room for it.

“The key for the flight was not to perturb the mass properties,” Ms. Weigel said.

The astronauts will use supplies and clothing already at the space station during their scheduled stay of about a week.

Starliner has successfully separated from the Atlas V second stage. In about 16 minutes, Starliner will fire its thrusters to put itself in a stable orbit around Earth.

The second stage engines have shut down, right on time. Three minutes of coasting before Starliner separates from the rocket.

It is now 96 miles above Earth, moving at more than 15,000 miles per hour.

To reach orbit — that is, to go fast enough in order to not fall back down to Earth — Starliner will need to reach about 17,500 miles per hour. Everything continues to go well.

The spacecraft is now traveling 12,600 miles per hour.

The first stage of the Atlas V rocket has done its job, shutting down and dropping off, and the two engines of the second stage have ignited.

The solid rocket boosters have expended and dropped off. Everything continues to look good.

One minute until liftoff.

Here’s the revised flight plan for the Starliner’s journey.

If all goes well, an Atlas V rocket carrying Starliner will lift off on Wednesday at 10:52 a.m. Eastern time from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It must launch at the exact moment — what is known as an instantaneous launch window — that would allow it to catch up with the International Space Station.

Starliner will detach from the second stage of the rocket 15 minutes after launch. Sixteen minutes later, Starliner will fire its thrusters to enter a stable orbit around Earth.

Starliner will take more than a day to meet up with the space station. During that time, two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will perform tests, including manually flying the spacecraft.

On Thursday, the spacecraft will slowly approach the station, with docking scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Eastern time.

Starliner, along with Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams, will stay at the space station for about a week, allowing for more tests of the spacecraft and its systems.

“We’re pretty much on a timeline, making sure we’re going to get everything done,” Ms. Williams said during a Q. and A. session before the postponed launch attempt on May 6.

Does NASA need another ride to the space station? Elon Musk says no.

As SpaceX noted on X last Thursday, May 30 was the fourth anniversary of its equivalent of this week’s Starliner mission — the first launch of the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft with two NASA astronauts aboard.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of Falcon 9 launching @NASA ’s Demo-2 mission to the @space_station , returning human spaceflight to the United States pic.twitter.com/jzwyCwam3l — SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 30, 2024

The space agency boisterously celebrated the achievement, which ended NASA’s nearly decade-long dependence on Russian Soyuz rockets for getting its astronauts to orbit.

That has rendered the upcoming debut of Starliner almost an afterthought, with Boeing seemingly light-years behind SpaceX.

Since the first test flight in 2020, SpaceX has flown eight operational missions for NASA, each taking four astronauts to the International Space Station for six-month stays. The SpaceX missions have unfolded smoothly and reliably at a cost much lower than what Boeing will charge.

So why does NASA continue to spend time, effort and money on Starliner? Why not cancel that contract and rely solely on SpaceX?

Indeed, before Starliner’s scrubbed launch attempt on May 6, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, posted on his social media site, X, “The world doesn’t need another capsule.”

In a separate posting, Mr. Musk sharply criticized Boeing. “Although Boeing got $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX only got $2.6 billion, SpaceX finished 4 years sooner,” he wrote. “Too many non-technical managers at Boeing.”

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment.

But while Mr. Musk might think Starliner is superfluous, NASA officials have often said it is important to have contingency options if something goes wrong.

“This will give us that additional capability because we always look for a backup,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said during a news conference on Friday.

Dana Weigel, program manager of the space station for NASA, gave the example of when a Soyuz docked at the space station suffered a coolant leak in 2022 .

Had the Soyuz been the only means of transportation, that could have led to a situation where the lives of the astronauts were genuinely at risk. But a SpaceX Crew Dragon was also docked there, providing a backup.

“If we had to bring the whole crew home on a SpaceX Dragon, we could have done that,” Ms. Weigel said.

For NASA, the more options it has, the better. If Crew Dragon or Starliner suffered a failure and were grounded, the other would still be available. That lessens the possibility that the United States might again have to rely on Russians and the whims of President Vladimir V. Putin for launching people to space.

“The more dissimilar capabilities you have, the more robust you are for dealing with issues,” Ms. Weigel said.

SpaceX has also launched four private astronaut missions using the same Crew Dragons. The first one, Inspiration4, was financed by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur. While that flight went only to orbit and not to the I.S.S., Axiom Space of Houston has since flown three private astronaut missions to the space station, with a fourth that might launch as soon as August.

Mr. Isaacman is also planning to return to space later this year with another Crew Dragon mission, called Polaris Dawn, which is aiming to perform the first spacewalk during a commercial spaceflight.

Niraj Chokshi

Reporting on Boeing and other companies in the aviation industry.

Starliner has cost Boeing $1.4 billion more than it planned to spend.

Wednesday’s Starliner launch has been almost a decade in the making, but it has not been an easy ride for Boeing. In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX, which received far less funding, carried astronauts into orbit for the first time in 2020. Boeing hopes to achieve that milestone on Thursday.

Along the way, the aerospace giant has faced many setbacks, including years of delays and more than $1.4 billion in unexpected charges. In securities filings, Boeing has blamed engineering issues and supply chain problems; higher-than-expected costs for development, certification and testing; and even a problem identified in testing by a parachute supplier.

“Building rockets and spacecraft is no trivial task,” said Ron Epstein, a financial analyst at Bank of America. “It’s just taken Boeing longer and cost them more to do than they thought.”

The setbacks underscore a broader frustration for Boeing’s defense and space business: fixed-price contracts, under which contractors bear responsibility for higher-than-expected costs. Under a cost-plus contract, on the other hand, the government is responsible for covering unexpected expenses.

Fixed-price contracts are financially risky for companies if costs rise or delays materialize — and Boeing has struggled under them in recent years. Such contracts accounted for about 58 percent of the revenues coming into its defense and space unit last year, and the company has said that it is working to limit its reliance on them. (SpaceX, by contrast, has thrived on fixed-price contracts.)

“We have a couple of fixed-price development programs we have to just finish and never do them again,” Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, said at an investor conference last summer. “It doesn’t work for us, and it doesn’t work for our customers, in my not-so-humble opinion.”

Although the company has faced delays, a Boeing representative said in a statement in May that the company remained “committed to providing NASA with a crew access capability to low Earth orbit” and that it “will continue to fulfill our contractual obligations.”

Boeing’s Starliner capsule has had a long, difficult road to human spaceflight.

In late 2019, Boeing appeared to have a good chance at beating SpaceX to become the first private U.S. company to take astronauts to orbit.

But in the four and a half years since, a lot has gone wrong. Here’s a timeline of the setbacks that have caused Boeing to fall so far behind SpaceX in providing American astronauts a ride to low Earth orbit.

December 2019: A ‘high-visibility close call’

On Dec. 20, 2019, Boeing looked to be in the homestretch.

A Starliner capsule — the same spacecraft that is to take the NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the space station on Saturday — was on the launchpad atop an Atlas V rocket.

The test flight to the space station had no astronauts on board, and its mission was to assess the spacecraft’s navigation, propulsion and docking systems. If the flight were to pass this last technical hurdle, a trip with astronauts aboard could take place within months.

The Atlas V rocket launched flawlessly, releasing Starliner.

And then the mission immediately went awry .

The spacecraft’s clock was set to the wrong time, making Starliner think it was in the wrong location. The capsule fired its thrusters to try to get to where it thought it should be. At the same time, a communications glitch thwarted efforts by flight controllers at mission control to diagnose and fix the problem.

Starliner used up too much propellant, and the planned docking at the space station was called off.

During the troubleshooting process, Boeing engineers discovered another software error that would have fired the wrong thrusters during a maneuver leading up to re-entry. NASA labeled the incident a “high-visibility close call” that could have destroyed the spacecraft if the errors had not been patched from the ground during the flight.

An investigation revealed multiple failures in Boeing’s processes that should have caught the mistakes before the launch. An exhaustive audit reviewed one million lines of software code.

NASA officials admitted that maybe they had placed too much trust in Boeing, which had decades of experience working with NASA.

Summer 2021: Corrosion on the launchpad

NASA and the company decided that a second uncrewed test was needed before a flight could be made with astronauts aboard. The spacecraft was rolled onto the launchpad in July, but a problem aboard the space station prompted a delay to early August. Then, ahead of an Aug. 4 launch attempt, mission managers discovered corroded propellant valves on Starliner that would not open. The test flight was called off, and another lengthy round of troubleshooting followed.

May 2022: Another launch, more problems

The second uncrewed test finally launched on May 19, 2022.

During a maneuver to put Starliner in a stable orbit, two thrusters failed, but the spacecraft was able to compensate. It proceeded to dock at the space station and returned to Earth successfully.

July 2023: Parachutes and tape

Before the test flight with astronauts aboard, then scheduled for July 2023, two more issues emerged. Protective tape that was wrapped around wiring insulation turned out to be flammable, and a key component in the parachute system was weaker than designed, meaning it could break if Starliner’s three parachutes did not deploy properly.

About a mile of the tape was replaced, and the parachute design was upgraded, strengthened and retested.

May 2024: Still not ready to fly

“We’ve been taking our time to go through everything methodically, because it is a test flight and we want it to go well,” Steve Stich, the program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, said during a news conference on May 3.

Mark Nappi, the program manager at Boeing for Starliner, said: “We are ready to perform the test flight. And I’ve never felt readier on any mission that I’ve ever participated in.”

But Starliner was still not quite ready.

The countdown on May 6 was proceeding smoothly until a balky valve on the second stage of the Atlas V rocket — unrelated to Starliner — started acting up, vibrating audibly about 40 times per second.

The launch was called off, and the rocket needed to be taken off the launchpad for the valve to be replaced. That work was completed within a few days.

But a thornier issue emerged.

As the propellants were drained from the tanks of the Atlas V rocket, engineers discovered a small helium leak in Starliner’s propulsion system.

Helium, an inert gas, is used to push propellants to the thrusters. If too much is lost, the thrusters may not work properly.

The leak was traced to a seal on a helium line leading to one of 28 small thrusters known as reaction control system engines.

“Much like you would have on any piece of your plumbing at home, a faucet or anything like that,” Mr. Stich said during a telephone news conference on May 24. “There’s a seal that keeps that interface tight.”

Tests showed no leaks in the seals leading to the other 27 reaction control system engines, and engineers were confident that the single leak was manageable. There are no plans to replace the seal, which would require pulling Starliner off the Atlas V rocket and would lead to an even lengthier delay for the flight.

“We could handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times,” Mr. Stich said.

The helium leak led NASA and Boeing to take a wider look at Starliner’s propulsion system, which revealed a “design vulnerability,” Mr. Stich said. If a series of unlikely failures occurred, the spacecraft might not be able to bring the astronauts safely back to Earth.

If there were problems with the larger engines intended to be fired for a maneuver to drop the spacecraft out of orbit, one of the backup plans was to use eight of the smaller thrusters. However, the analysis showed that an additional failure might mean there would be only four available.

The engineers then developed another backup plan to bring Starliner out of orbit with only the four thrusters. NASA and Boeing officials said that, after weeks of studying the problem, they were confident they could manage problems that might arise from the leak.

On Saturday, Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams were ready to fly. Starliner was ready too, but the computers controlling the final minutes of the countdown encountered a problem, and the launch was called off again.

Everyone is back for another attempt on Wednesday.

Space is a small but important part of Boeing’s business.

Boeing is best known for its airplanes, but it has a long history of space-related work. That includes substantial contributions to the first crewed mission to the moon and to the International Space Station.

Today, the company is helping to build an essential component of NASA’s Space Launch System, or S.L.S., a rocket designed to carry spacecraft, cargo and astronauts to the moon. In 2022, the agency successfully launched Artemis I, a test flight with no astronauts aboard, which included a mammoth booster stage built by Boeing. The booster helped the rocket to reach orbit. The company is working on similar sections for future missions involving S.L.S., too. The next, Artemis II, could send four astronauts around the moon in 2025.

In addition to that work, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have a joint venture known as United Launch Alliance, or U.L.A., which was founded in 2006 and employs about 2,700 people. That company’s rockets have sent more than 100 satellites into space, and its Atlas V vehicle is lifting the Starliner into orbit on Wednesday.

Boeing also makes satellites of all sizes for government and commercial operators, as well as missile warning and other satellite systems.

That space-related work is distinct from Boeing’s other endeavors. The company is divided into three units: one focused on making commercial airplanes; another focused on making military aircraft, missiles and space programs; and a third that provides services and maintenance to Boeing’s customers.

The units share some broad similarities, but are run independently, with different processes, products and cultures. Much of the company’s commercial-plane assembly takes place in the Seattle area or in North Charleston, S.C. Work on Boeing’s space programs is more diffuse and carried out across the country, including in Alabama, California, Louisiana, Colorado, Texas and Florida.

“They’re basically businesses within a business,” Ken Herbert, an analyst with RBC Capital, said of Boeing’s space programs.

Those programs, including Boeing’s work on Starliner, are prestigious, but still account for a small fraction of the business generated by Boeing’s defense unit, which itself is smaller than its commercial airplane business.

What is Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft?

At first glance, the Boeing Starliner looks much like the command module used by NASA during the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s and the 1970s.

That’s not a random coincidence. The ability of that cone-shaped vehicle to keep astronauts safe during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere is well documented.

At 15 feet in diameter, Starliner is slightly bigger than the Apollo spacecraft. The capsule and the service module — the part of the spacecraft that provides power and propulsion during the flight before being discarded just before landing — are together 16.5 feet in height.

The spacecraft is large enough to carry up to seven astronauts, but NASA missions will carry a crew of four. Boeing has the option of selling a fifth seat to a private customer who wants to tag along.

Each Starliner capsule is designed to be used for up to 10 missions; by contrast, the service module — the cylindrical component below the capsule, containing power, propulsion and life support systems — burns up in the atmosphere, and a new one is needed for each trip.

Boeing has built three Starliner capsules. The first was used only to demonstrate the ability to quickly fly astronauts to safety in case of an emergency on the launchpad. That capsule will not be used for any missions to orbit.

The Starliner used for this mission previously flew in space in 2020 during the first test flight with no crew, which was cut short because of technical problems. Suni Williams, the pilot for this mission, has named the spacecraft Calypso, a nod to the research ship used by Jacques Cousteau, a French undersea explorer.

The third Starliner, still unnamed, was used for the second test without crew in 2022 and will fly four astronauts to the International Space Station for the first operational mission, scheduled for next year.

Returning astronauts to the moon is NASA's biggest challenge, but not its only one: report

"Most of these issues are long-standing, difficult challenges central to NASA's core missions and likely will remain top challenges for years to come."

NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has issued its annual report for 2023, highlighting the challenges that lie ahead for the U.S. space agency.

The report recognizes innovations made by NASA since its creation in 1958 that have made it a global space science leader, including programs such as Apollo , the space shuttle , the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and emerging technologies for sustainable aviation . It also highlights substantial cost growth and lengthy schedule delays as issues that continue to impact NASA programs ranging from space flight to major science and exploratory programs. 

A major factor in the OIG report is the planned return of humans to the moon as part of the Artemis Program , and it also points to the forthcoming retirement of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of the decade and the challenge this poses to NASA as it seeks to maintain an active human presence in low Earth orbit.

The report is broken down into seven different challenges that the OIG has identified as "top challenges" in relation to NASA's overall mission, NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin wrote in the report . "These seven highlighted challenges are not the only significant issues that confront NASA, and identification of an issue as a top challenge does not denote a lack of attention on the Agency's part. Rather, most of these issues are long-standing, difficult challenges central to NASA's core missions and likely will remain top challenges for years to come."

Related: NASA's mighty SLS megarocket for Artemis moonshots 'unaffordable' for sustained exploration, audit finds

Challenge 1: Return to the moon

The Artemis program plans to send the first woman and person of color to the moon by no sooner than late 2024 or early 2025 during the Artemis 3 mission. As this target looms is a major element of the OIG report, which highlights the expense of operating Artemis' Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule . 

The cost of each launch from Artemis 1 to Artemis 4 is estimated at $4.2 billion, and this figure does not include the $42 billion spent to bring these systems to the launch pad. As such, given these titanic costs and the ambitious schedule of Artemis, the OIG warns the program's sustainability poses a significant challenge to NASA's future crewed exploration goals. 

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Progress made in this area by NASA thus far includes the collection of data from the successful blast-off of the SLS rocket and the flight of the Orion capsule during the Artemis 1 mission which launched on Nov. 14, 2022 .

The OIG also points to the effort of NASA to reduce the costs of lunar flights after Artemis 4, the development of key systems like spacesuits that will be used during humanity's first return to the moon for fifty years, and the improvement of NASA's management of the Artemis missions as other examples of progress over the last year.

The OIG says that NASA must tackle technical issues like the unexpected erosion of Orion's heat shield during the Artemis 1 flight and the unpredicted damage to the SLS and ground infrastructure during launch. The report adds that NASA must also identify and implement effective ways to reduce costs to enable fiscal sustainability for its flagship human exploration effort as Congress pushes for an increase in SLS and Orion launches.

Challenge 2: Keeping humans in low Earth orbit after the ISS

For 22 years, humanity has maintained a presence in low-Earth orbit thanks to the ISS, so it is little surprise that the retirement of the space station at the start of the 2030s represents a huge change for NASA and other space agencies. 

The ISS has been the site of revolutionary science conducted in microgravity that has vastly improved our understanding of human health in space , which will have ramifications for future space exploration. All of this has warranted NASA spending around a third of its budget on the space station, which will be decommissioned in 2030 and deorbited in 2031 . 

To maintain the presence of humans at altitudes between 100 and 600 miles over Earth after this ISS retirement, NASA plans to turn to commercial space stations . The main challenge this presents, according to the report, comes in the form of avoiding a gap between the end of the ISS and the advent of commercial platforms. NASA currently plans to have one low-Earth orbit site available for 2028, creating a two-year overlap with the ISS.

Maintaining this presence will also hinge on the reliability and cost-effectiveness of transport to low-Earth orbit. Much of this will rely on NASA teaming with SpaceX , which, as of August 2023, has successfully launched 28 cargo and 11 crewed missions to the ISS, and Axiom Space , which has conducted two private astronaut missions with a third currently being scheduled.

In July 2022, NASA also established an agreement to continue working with the Russian space agency Roscosmos , allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S. spacecraft in exchange for U.S. astronauts flying on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

One of the recommendations the OIG puts forward in respect of this aspect of NASA's work is the development of a space tug deorbit vehicle to supplement the deorbit of the ISS and reduce the risk of it contributing to space debris around Earth that may threaten future space stations. 

Challenge 3: Addressing NASA's outdated infrastructure and facilities

The ISS isn't the only piece of outdated NASA hardware that poses a challenge to the space agency. The report points out that nearly 83 percent of NASA's facilities are beyond their original design life. As much as two-thirds of NASA's infrastructure is located along coastlines, meaning rising sea levels threaten to damage this infrastructure. Potential damage is also being presented by storms, storm surges, and extreme weather events. 

In addition to this, the OIG points out that NASA currently has more infrastructure than it actually needs for planned missions. 

Issues with infrastructure, according to the report, arise from what the OIG says is "NASA's slow implementation of corrective actions, inconsistent implementation of Agency policies, inadequate life cycle cost considerations, decentralized strategies, and decision-making processes, questioned costs, and substantial cost increases and schedule delays due to poor contractor performance."

The OIG recommends that as NASA upgrades its facilities and infrastructure, including those required for critical Artemis missions, and that it improves decision-making to execute important decisions about facilities and consolidating unneeded infrastructure while better communicating these choices with stakeholders.

Challenge 4: Cultivating and protecting a diverse and skilled workforce

As of April 2023, the report states that NASA had over 18,000 civil service employees working at its facilities. The majority of these are working in science and engineering fields, with NASA continuing to seek ways to attract, promote, and retain a diverse, multigenerational workforce that possesses the technical skills needed for its operations.

The OIG identifies challenges in increasing the representation of women and minorities in its civilian and leadership ranks and developing a better pipeline for women and minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The report says that despite the efforts of NASA, the overall percentage of women and minority groups at NASA has not changed in 10 years. 

NASA has also struggled to recruit, hire, and retain diverse STEM employees, with the shortage of STEM staff only set to deepen as competition increases as the commercial space industry expands. 

The report points out that further compounding these issues is the fact that nearly 40 percent of NASA's science and engineering workforce is nearing retirement. This could impact NASA's preparations for future Artemis missions.

The OIG recommends NASA better collect diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiative data and analyze it to determine what barriers exist in recruiting, selecting, promoting, and retaining underrepresented groups. 

Challenge 5: Improving management of major programs and projects

No one can doubt the incredible achievements of NASA projects, with the space agency flying a helicopter on Mars and taking deeper images of the universe than ever before. The problem is that these innovative missions and programs have consistently cost more and taken longer to develop than promised, and the effects of this ripple across NASA, the report says.

NASA management also currently faces challenges in the stimulation of the new commercial space economy via shifting to develop service-based missions, which could save on costs.

A striking example of this challenge is the fact that between November 2018 and November 2019, NASA contracted with 14 U.S. companies until 2028 to develop rapid, frequent, and affordable access to the lunar surface. Costing as much as $2.6 billion, this was meant to see deliveries to the moon begin as soon as September 2020. Thus far, no payload deliveries to the moon have been made, and many contractors have been paid over the initial fixed-cost agreement. 

The OIG says that overcoming the challenge of developing major projects on cost and schedule requires a concerted effort that begins with proper risk consideration. This should lead to credible, reasonable, and transparent cost and schedule expectations. 

NASA should also take into account the continuing impacts of COVID-19 on the economy, labor shortages, supply chain issues, and inflation and incorporate it into its planning. This will all be essential as NASA moves toward a reliance on missions that incorporate a "service" element. 

Challenge 6: Maturing information technology management and security

Information technology (IT) is vital to the day-to-day operations of NASA and presents challenges in the form of shifting NASA to an enterprise computing model. This arises from NASA's current decentralized management structure, which the OIG says negatively affects the space agency's ability to protect information and IT systems vital to its mission.

The report says implementing multifactor authentication, Data-at-Rest, and Data-in-Transit encryption, and zero-trust enterprise-wide are critical undertakings for NASA in the coming years. The space agency must also tackle issues with software license and asset management activities, which expose NASA to operational, financial, and cybersecurity risks .

The report also urges NASA to implement a single standard definition of Artificial Intelligence to manage its inventory of AI assets better and face challenges in implementing future federal AI cybersecurity controls.

Challenge 7: Better oversight of grants and cooperative agreements

During the financial year of 2022, NASA spent an estimated $19.9 billion on contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. During these 12 months, NASA awarded 1,787 grants and 270 cooperative agreements for the purposes of research and development and in the acquisition of essential services, supplies, and equipment for operations and missions. 

Clearly, getting value for money in these investments meets the criteria of a major concern for NASA. The OIG has consistently stated that NASA's inadequate management and oversight of contracts and the like, in addition to substantial growth in both the cost and schedule of many NASA programs, has resulted in expenditure and wasted taxpayer money. 

 —  NASA's Artemis moon rocket will cost $6 billion more than planned: report

 — NASA gets $27.2 billion in White House's 2024 budget request

—  NASA wants more 'space tug' ideas to deorbit the International Space Station in a fiery finale

Even more troubling, the past investigations of the OIG have uncovered improper use of grant funds, fraud, and other waste and abuse within NASA, that over the past 3 years has resulted in 8 indictments, 8 convictions, 4 suspensions, and 7 debarments, costing NASA over $3.6 million in civil settlement fines.

The report says that over the last year, NASA has made progress in the improvement of contract management, but it needs to take further action to improve transparency, accountability, and oversight. Improvement is also recommended in understanding the needs of the SLS so that the management of contracts for the rocket is improved. 

Additionally, it should continue improving the closeout of current and future grants to ensure funds are properly allocated, the report concludes.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.

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• NEWS FEATURE
• 29 May 2024

Exclusive: How NASA astronauts are training to walk on the Moon in 2026

• Alexandra Witze 0

Alexandra Witze writes for Nature from Boulder, Colorado.

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NASA astronaut Kate Rubins chooses a tool for geological exploration during a training exercise at night. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

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HOUSTON, TEXAS

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins was having a hard time seeing in the eerie twilight of the Moon’s south pole this month.

Rubins made her way carefully through the deep shadows on the lunar surface, her path dimly lit by lights on her spacesuit’s helmet. She was hunting through the volcanic landscape for geological treasure — Moon rocks that she could pick up and bring back to Earth, which would reveal secrets of this frozen world. As the first person to set foot on the Moon in more than half a century, Rubins was making good progress on her historic foray — despite the piles of cow manure along the way.

The rock-strewn plain wasn’t really the Moon but was, in fact, the high desert of northern Arizona. Rubins and astronaut Andre Douglas were participating in the biggest dress rehearsal yet for the next time NASA plans to send people to the Moon’s surface , a mission known as Artemis III. If all goes to plan, Rubins or one of her colleagues will be stepping onto the actual Moon a little over two years from now. So NASA is training its astronauts to make the most of their precious time there — given that no human has set foot on the lunar surface since the last Apollo crew blasted off in 1972.

The $93-billion plan to put astronauts back on the Moon

“There’s a lot we need to relearn or figure out,” says Juliane Gross, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, who will oversee the Artemis samples when they come back to Earth. “And so we’re charting the way while we sail it.”

“We’re baking in that scientific rigour very early on that these missions are going to need,” Rubins later told Nature .

During the moonwalking simulation two weeks ago, Gross and other scientists gathered at JSC. It was a massive undertaking that linked astronauts in the field in Arizona with mission controllers and a science team in Houston — working together in real time to choreograph what the astronauts should do on the mock lunar surface. Leading scientists, famous astronauts and NASA brass all showed up to witness the historic test. More than six years after the agency officially kicked off its Artemis programme to return humans to the Moon, it felt as if the Artemis Moon landing was becoming real.

Geology class

If NASA manages to pull off an Artemis III landing, it will have taken some US$100 billion to develop the rockets, crew capsule, landing system and other equipment. As with the Apollo 11 landing in 1969, in which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the Moon, the Artemis III landing aims primarily to get astronauts there and back safely.

But science is an integral part of the Artemis programme, according to NASA. The agency has ramped up its astronaut training to incorporate more field geology, so that crew members can learn how to explore the lunar landscape and determine which rocks to pick up, as well as how to deduce the area’s geological history.

Such training paid off during the final three Apollo missions, when each astronaut had roughly 1,000 hours of science training, says Dean Eppler, a lunar geologist who has retired from JSC. “We look at Apollo as the way to do it because it was very successful,” he says. On Apollo 15 in 1971, for instance, two former test pilots spotted and brought home a gleaming fragment of what turned out to be primordial lunar crust. That sample, nicknamed the Genesis Rock, helped geologists to understand how the Moon solidified from a molten magma ocean more than four billion years ago.

In the 2000s and 2010s, NASA trained astronauts to observe Earth from the International Space Station. Now, through visits to places such as asteroid craters and volcanic terrain, astronauts experience what it will be like on the Moon. “That way they know, when you get to the surface of the Moon — if things are not quite the way you had them in your mind, that’s OK,” says Cynthia Evans, a geologist at JSC who leads astronaut geology training.

The harsh light at the Moon’s south pole means that astronauts must prepare to work in a strangely illuminated landscape. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

Artemis III will visit a part of the Moon that has never been explored by astronauts, the lunar south pole. Because of the region’s high latitude, the illumination will be harsh and at a steep angle relative to the surface as the Sun circles the horizon. The contrast between brightly lit regions and deep shadows will make it difficult for astronauts to work in the environment.

Ground zero for the recent exercise in extravehicular activities (EVAs) was the San Francisco volcanic field north of Flagstaff, Arizona, where NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS) trained Apollo astronauts in the 1960s. This month’s test, known as JETT5 for Joint EVA and Human Surface Mobility Test Team, took place on private land near a cinder cone known as SP Crater. (SP stands for ‘shit pot’, because the crater and its associated lava flow look as if someone tipped over a chamber pot and the contents flowed out onto the landscape.)

A satellite view of SP Crater in Arizona shows the volcanic crater and lava flow that serve as a simulated Moon landscape for astronauts in training. Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and US/Japan ASTER Science Team

Last year, USGS geologists mapped the test area and handed those maps to the researchers who gathered at JSC in a ‘science back room’ during the training exercise. The researchers drew up four simulated moonwalks, each of which ventured from a landing site to explore lava flows, gorges and other geology in the area. “This is very relevant to exactly what we’ll be doing for Artemis,” says Lauren Edgar, a geologist at the USGS in Flagstaff who is co-leader of the JETT5 science team.

During the third of the four moonwalks this month, Rubins and Douglas climbed into spacesuits that mimic what the Artemis team might wear on the Moon. They ‘disembarked’ from their ‘lander’ by walking through a set of orange poles strung with tape — and they were suddenly on the lunar surface, albeit one riddled with ant hills and cow dung.

Rubins and Douglas took photographs and began collecting rocks, radioing their observations back to mission control. They were so efficient at working through their carefully scripted checklists that they were soon running ten minutes ahead.

Some 1,600 kilometres away in Houston, their speed caught the attention of Brett Denevi, a planetary geologist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, who was serving as leader of the science back room for the evening.

Planetary geologist Brett Denevi consults with other researchers about what NASA astronauts should do during their simulated moonwalk. Credit: Michael Starghill Jr for Nature

Looking for ideas, Denevi asked the science scrum — the informal name for the team members sitting around a map-strewn table. Among them were four scientists, each of whom represented one of JETT5’s main science goals: the study of the area’s surface processes; age relationships between its rocks; its volcanic history; and whether there could be volatile elements frozen in the soil in this simulacrum of the Moon’s south pole. The scrum decided to ask whether the astronauts could collect a drive tube of eroded sediments.

Drive tubes are metal cylinders that allow geologists to collect core samples of soft sediments. During the Apollo era of lunar exploration from 1969 to 1972, NASA astronauts gathered tubes of lunar soil that revealed how cosmic rays pummel the Moon’s surface. Now, Denevi and her team wanted a sample of sediments that had eroded off a nearby rock outcrop. It was a big ask that would require the astronauts to divert from other tasks they had planned.

Each decision during the test had to be justified in real time and carefully documented. “We can’t just say we want that rock,” said José Hurtado, a geologist at the University of Texas El Paso who was Denevi’s deputy for the evening. “We have to elucidate why we want that specific rock and why it ties back to our priorities.”

Denevi walked over to a man wearing a communications headset and passed him a note. “We want to do a single drive tube,” she told him. “Here are the coordinates.”

The scientists’ request was relayed to mission control, which agreed; flight controllers then told the astronauts to go ahead and collect the requested sample. The science back room clocked that as a big win for the evening and erupted in cheers. “We did that!” said one of the scientists at the map table, pumping her arm in triumph. Soon, a series of clinking sounds filled the mission audio feed as Rubins hammered the drive tube into the ground.

Locating astronauts in real time on the lunar surface is one of the challenges that NASA is working to overcome. Credit: Michael Starghill Jr for Nature

Not everything went smoothly during the night-time EVA. The flight-operations team deliberately built in some challenges, including dropping video communications with the astronauts any time they travelled too far from the lander. An artificial, 20-minute delay on downloading imagery meant that the science team often couldn’t see real-time photos of the rocks the astronauts were picking up.

At one point, Rubins, who is a microbiologist, joked about collecting a piece of cow manure and putting it in a geological sample bag, given that it is ever-present on the Arizona ranch land.

The science back room hummed with activity on multiple audio loops and virtual chats. In addition to the scrum, another group of researchers set up at a neighbouring table to analyse images from the moonwalk, while two other scientists kept track of where the astronauts were.

Real-time videos from the ‘moonwalking’ astronauts in Arizona appear on display screens at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas. Scientists at the centre discuss what the astronauts should do during the training. Credit: Michael Starghill Jr for Nature

Night light

To mimic the lighting conditions at the lunar south pole, JETT5 organizers built a ‘Sun cart’ — essentially a giant spotlight wheeled onto the landscape. To Rubins and Douglas, the light looked like the distant Sun hovering just above the horizon.

The astronauts carefully navigated their way across the dim landscape, relying on a few personal lights to aid their work. Rubins in particular was thrilled to have a handheld light that she could direct where she wanted, in addition to the helmet-mounted lights that pointed only in the direction in which she was looking. “I’m going to call a light that illuminates the area near my feet totally necessary,” she told mission control — feedback that could help astronauts when they reach the Moon.

The point of JETT5 was to develop tools and procedures that will work for Artemis III astronauts on the lunar surface. But many of NASA’s challenges are much greater than working out which rocks to pick up. The Artemis programme has less funding than Apollo did — that programme and its precursors spent more than $300 billion in today’s dollars between 1960 and 1973 — and the planned cadence of Artemis missions is accordingly slower.

Artemis I, an uncrewed test of the heavy-lift rocket and crew capsule to be used for astronauts, was a 25-day space flight that orbited the Moon in late 2022 . Artemis II, which will send four astronauts around the Moon without landing, is scheduled for no earlier than September 2025 and the Artemis III landing would be no sooner than September 2026. Artemis IV, another crewed mission to the surface, is pencilled in for 2028. Meanwhile, China has announced its own plans to send humans to the Moon by 2030.

Lift off! Artemis Moon rocket launch kicks off new era of human exploration

NASA has been collaborating with other space agencies on its Artemis plans. Rubins, for instance, has done extra field geology training with the European Space Agency, including at an impact crater in Germany.

“You really want to get your astronauts best acquainted with what they will come across in space in an environment on Earth that you can control and they can learn from,” says Samuel Payler, who helps to lead astronaut science training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

At the end of the evening’s moonwalk, Denevi and her team got a surprise of their own. “I forgot to tell you something super-important,” Rubins told mission control as she and Douglas were wrapping up for the night. “I found a really cool rock and I didn’t tell you about it!”

The mystery rock piqued the interest of the science back room. Rubins said it was about the size of a softball, but gave no further clues. The scientists then had to work out how to account for it in their planning, including how much it might consume of the allotted weight of rocks they were able to bring back from the ‘Moon’ during the exercise.

Mock spacesuits and a tool cart mimic the equipment that Artemis astronauts might use on the surface of the Moon. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

The next night, during the final stage of JETT5, the astronauts pulled off their longest simulated moonwalk yet, at nearly four hours. They had collected about 38 kilograms of rocks and soil, and met their main goals. As the astronauts stowed their Moon tools in Arizona, the science back room in Texas suddenly got a lot more crowded as the flight operations team joined the room for a debriefing session.

Flight controllers described how JETT5 went from their perspective, and the science back room was relieved to hear that the process worked well. “Thank you for allowing us to advocate for science — I think it was powerful to see that happen,” Cherie Achilles, a mineralogist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and co-leader of the science team, told the room.

Soon, the scientists were planning for a more extensive debriefing the next day. After that, there would be spreadsheets to finish, documents to finalize and papers to write up.

NASA isn’t planning another big exercise like JETT5 any time soon, but there will be smaller efforts to test specific tools for lunar exploration. If NASA is going to make its Artemis dreams come true, there’s a lot of work to be done.

Nature 630 , 26-28 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01533-3

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Hubble will change how it points, but NASA says 'great science' will continue

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The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit in 1999, just after a servicing mission by astronauts. NASA hide caption

The Hubble Space Telescope is suffering the kinds of aches and pains that can come with being old, and NASA officials say they’re shifting into a new way of pointing the telescope in order to work around a piece of hardware that’s become intolerably glitchy.

Officials also announced that, for now, they’ve decided not to pursue a plan put forward by a wealthy private astronaut who wanted to go to Hubble in a SpaceX capsule, in a mission aimed at extending the telescope’s lifespan by boosting it up into a higher orbit and perhaps even adding new technology to enhance its operations.

“Even without that reboost, we still expect to continue producing science through the rest of this decade and into the next,” Mark Clampin , director of the astrophysics division in NASA’s science mission directorate, told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.

Because of atmospheric drag, the bus-sized telescope is slowly drifting down towards Earth. If nothing is eventually done to raise it up, it will likely plunge down into the atmosphere and mostly burn up in the mid-2030’s.

Private mission to save the Hubble Space Telescope raises concerns, NASA emails show

That’s one reason why NASA was so interested when Jared Isaacman, who has previously gone to orbit in a SpaceX capsule, suggested mounting a mission to Hubble as part of a series of technology demonstration spaceflights he has planned.

NASA and SpaceX jointly worked on a feasibility study to see what might be possible for Hubble. The telescope has been in orbit since 1990 and was last repaired 15 years ago, by astronauts who went up in NASA’s space shuttles, which are now museum exhibits.

NASA’s Clampin told reporters that “after exploring the current commercial capabilities, we are not going to pursue a reboost right now.”

He said the assessment of Isaacman’s proposal raised a number of considerations, including potential risks such as “premature loss of science” if Hubble accidentally got damaged.

NASA officials stressed that Hubble’s instruments are healthy and the telescope remains incredibly productive.

“We do not see Hubble as being on its last legs,” said Patrick Crouse , project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We do think it's a very capable observatory and poised to do exciting things.”

But it will have to do those exciting things with a new way of operating the system it uses for pointing at celestial objects.

That’s because officials have abandoned their efforts to use a glitchy gyroscope that has repeatedly forced the telescope to suspend science and go into “safe” mode in recent months.

Hubble’s pointing system is so precise, NASA says it is the equivalent of being able to keep a laser shining on a dime over 200 miles away for however long Hubble takes a picture – up to 24 hours. This system has long relied on using three gyroscopes at a time.

Now, though, to avoid having to use the sketchy gyro, NASA says Hubble will shift into a one-gyroscope mode of operation, a contingency plan that’s been around for years.

“After completing a series of tests and carefully considering our options, we have made the decision that we will transition Hubble to operate using only one of its three remaining gyros,” Clampin said. “Operationally, we believe this is our best approach to support Hubble science through this decade and into the next.”

The scattered stars of the globular cluster NGC 6355, that resides in our Milky Way, seen in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope ESA/Hubble & NASA, E.Noyola, R. Cohen hide caption

Using only one healthy gyroscope, and keeping one in reserve as a backup, will let the telescope continue to return gorgeous images of the universe, with some limitations. Hubble will be less efficient, for example, and it won’t be able to track moving objects that are close to Earth, within the orbit of Mars.

But Clampin said that “most of the observations it takes will be completely unaffected by this change.”

Astronomers still clamor to use Hubble, with proposals for what to observe far exceeding the available telescope time.

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021 did not render Hubble obsolete, as the two telescopes capture different kinds of light.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried

Eventually, NASA will have to decide what to do about Hubble, given that some of its large components would survive re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The space agency has long considered sending up some kind of mission that would control its descent and ensure that any Hubble rubble would safely fall into an ocean.

Adding such a propulsion unit would mean that NASA could also boost Hubble’s orbit, enabling it to live longer and take advantage of whatever instruments continued to work. But NASA’s Clampin suggested that there is time to consider options.

“Our latest prediction is that the earliest Hubble would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere is the mid-2030s,” he said. “So we are not going to be seeing it come down in the next couple of years.”

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