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Tag: capsule

  • Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year

    Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday’s arrival of a SpaceX capsule.

    SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.

    NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

    The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a weeklong trip for Wilmore and Williams into a mission lasting more than eight months.

    Two NASA astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.

    NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but flawed software and other Starliner issues led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

    Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with post-flight reviews of data set to begin this week.

    “We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” NASA’s associate administrator Jim Free said at a pre-launch briefing.

    The arrival of two fresh astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week. Their stay was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.

    Although Saturday’s liftoff went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific because of a bad engine firing. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • A capsule has been propelled through a hyperloop test tube in a step forward for the transit system

    A capsule has been propelled through a hyperloop test tube in a step forward for the transit system

    VEENDAM, Netherlands — Hyperloop, a new form of mass transit involving capsules whizzing on magnetic fields through depressurized tubes, has achieved significant liftoff in the northern Netherlands, a company developing the technology said Monday.

    A test vehicle was levitated and zipped through a tube at a testing facility for the high-speed transit system once promoted by Elon Musk.

    “So today, with the first successful test, we were able to levitate the vehicle, also turn on the guidance system and the propulsion system,” Marinus van der Meijs, the technology and engineering director at hyperloop company Hardt, told The Associated Press late last week before Monday’s formal announcement.

    The European Hyperloop Center’s 420-meter (460-yard) tube is made up of 34 separate sections mostly 2½ meters (more than eight feet) in diameter. A vacuum pump sucks out the air to reduce the internal pressure. That reduces drag and allows capsules to travel at high speeds.

    Hyperloop developers aim to have capsules speeding through tubes at up to 700 kph (435 mph). Its backers say it’s far more efficient than short-haul flights, high-speed rail and freight trucks, but it will involve significant investment in infrastructure.

    So far, in the limited space offered by the test center, the speed has been modest.

    Once the capsule was in place in the tube, “we launched it with an acceleration similar to that of a metro, up to a top speed of about 30 kph (18 mph), about 100 meters (more than 300 feet) in the pipe,” Van der Meijs added.

    Even so, it’s a milestone that required some careful conducting.

    “The most difficult things that we are doing now is to test all of these functions together. Levitation, propulsion, guidance, all of those functions we are now capable of executing as an orchestra, making them work together,” said Roel van de Pas, commercial director of Hardt Hyperloop.

    Musk first proposed the idea more than a decade ago, suggesting it could shuttle passengers the nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes. Since then, teams around the world have been working to bring the idea to fruition.

    “To deliver Hyperloop as a mobility system, we have a very complicated puzzle which requires technology, which requires policy, which requires public-private collaboration, and that is what is needed most,” Van de Pas said. “At Hardt, we are ready for passenger operations by 2030.”

    Some analysts are skeptical. When the hyperloop test facility opened in March, Robert Noland, distinguished professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, told The Associated Press that building the necessary infrastructure is too costly, calling it “another example of policymakers chasing a shiny object.”

    In 2016, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, signed a deal with Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One to study the potential for building a hyperloop line between the city-state and Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital.

    The announcement of the deal took place atop the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, with a panoramic view of the skyline of the futuristic city-state serving as both a backdrop and a sign of Dubai’s desire to be the first to rush toward the future.

    But like many flashy announcements in the city-state, the hyperloop idea faded in recent years with no track being built. Hyperloop One shut down in December.

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    For more AP tech stories: https://apnews.com/technology

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  • Boeing will fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon. Two NASA astronauts will stay behind

    Boeing will fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon. Two NASA astronauts will stay behind

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week — with empty seats.

    NASA said Wednesday that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a touchdown in New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range six hours later.

    NASA’s two stuck astronauts who flew up on Starliner will remain behind at the orbiting lab. They’ll ride home with SpaceX in February, eight months after launching on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Thruster trouble and helium leaks kept delaying their return until NASA decided that it was too risky for them to accompany Starliner back as originally planned.

    “It’s been a journey to get here and we’re excited to have Starliner return,” said NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.

    NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday. They are now considered full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board, helping with experiments and maintenance, and ramping up their exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong during their prolonged exposure to weightlessness.

    To make room for them on SpaceX’s next taxi flight, the Dragon capsule will launch with two astronauts instead of the usual four. Two were cut late last week from the six-month expedition, which is due to blast off in late September. Boeing has to free up the parking place for SpaceX’s arrival.

    Boeing encountered serious flaws with Starliner long before its June 5 liftoff on the long-delayed astronaut demo.

    Starliner’s first test flight went so poorly in 2019 — the capsule never reached the space station because of software errors — that the mission was repeated three years later. More problems surfaced, resulting in even more delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

    The capsule had suffered multiple thruster failures and propulsion-system helium leaks by the time it pulled up at the space station after launch. Boeing conducted extensive thruster tests in space and on the ground, and contended the capsule could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA disagreed, setting the complex ride swap in motion.

    Starliner will make a faster, simpler getaway than planned, using springs to push away from the space station and then short thruster firings to gradually increase the distance. The original plan called for an hour of dallying near the station, mostly for picture-taking; that was cut to 20 or so minutes to reduce the stress on the capsule’s thrusters and keep the station safe.

    Additional test firings of Starliner’s 28 thrusters are planned before the all-important descent from orbit. Engineers want to learn as much as they can since the thrusters won’t return to Earth; the section containing them will be ditched before the capsule reenters.

    The stuck astronauts — retired Navy captains — have lived on the space station before and settled in just fine, according to NASA officials. Even though their mission focus has changed, “they’re just as dedicated for the success of human spaceflight going forward,” flight director Anthony Vareha said.

    Their blue Boeing spacesuits will return with the capsule, along with some old station equipment.

    NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry its astronauts to and from the space station after its shuttles retired. SpaceX accomplished the feat in 2020 and has since launched nine crews for NASA and four for private customers.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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