Page 2 - Astronauts

Veteran Navy pilots, now astronauts, to stay for more time at space station

The two astronauts who will spend extra time at the International Space Station are Navy test pilots who have ridden out long missions before. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been holed up at the space station with seven others since the beginning of June, awaiting a verdict on how and when they would return to Earth. NASA decided Saturday they won't be flying back in their troubled Boeing capsule, but will wait for a ride with SpaceX in late February, pushing their mission to more than eight months. Their original itinerary on the test flight was eight days. Butch Wilmore Wilmore, 61, grew up in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, playing football for his high school team and later Tennessee Technological University. He joined the Navy, becoming a test pilot and racking up more than 8,000 hours of flying time and 663 aircraft carrier landings. He flew combat missions during the first Gulf War in 1991 and was serving as a flight test instructor when NASA chose him as an ...

Indian likely to fly to ISS by April next year under Nasa-Isro program

An Indian astronaut is likely to fly to the International Space Station by April next year as part of the NASA-ISRO collaborative initiative, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday. Two Indian astronaut-designates Group Captains Shubhanshu Shukla and Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair are undergoing training in the US for the Axiom Space Ax-4 mission. ISRO has assigned Shukla for the Ax-4 mission while Nair would be the backup candidate. "An Indian astronaut will travel to the ISS by April next year," Singh told a press conference here ahead of the first-ever National Space Day celebrations to mark the landing of Vikram lander on the Moon on August 23 last year. The theme for the National Space Day is 'Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India's Space Saga'. On the occasion, ISRO will release on August 23 the scientific data collected by the Chandrayaan-3 mission that could be used by researchers. More than one thousand events have been organised across the .

Nasa astronauts could vapourize to death if they return on faulty Starliner

Former US military Space System Commander, Rudy Ridolfi, lays down three possible scenarios of the stranded astronauts' return to earth onboard Starliner. Here's all you need to know

NASA needs more time to decide length of Boeing astronaut ISS stay

NASA said last week that it was working with Elon Musk's SpaceX on plans to return two astronauts to Earth in February 2025

Sunita Williams faces radiation, muscle loss risk on extended ISS mission

Prolonged exposure to space radiation can lead to multiple health problems such as an increased risk of cancer, tissue damage, and complications in the nervous system

SpaceX's historic crewed Polaris Dawn mission launch date confirmed

Polaris Dawn is hoping to launch on August 26. The spacecraft will orbit the Earth at around 435 miles (700 kilometres), taking the crew farther from Earth than any mission since the Apollo era

Nasa begins final countdown of Sunita Williams & Butch Wilmore's return

The Boeing Starliner needs to be undocked from the International Space Station to accommodate the Crew-9 mission set to launch no earlier than August 18

Gaganyaan mission: Two Isro astronauts to begin Nasa training in August

The astronaut duo will start training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas in August this year; one of the two astronauts will join the upcoming Indo-US space mission to the ISS

Martian dream vs reality

The road to Mars is long and arduous. But with the visionary drive of Elon Musk, we might find ourselves among the stars one day

Sunita Williams sends her 1st message to Earth; know all about her mission

Astronaut Sunita Williams, along with her mission commander Butch Wilmore, face uncertainty as they remain stuck in space for over a month due to technical snag with the Boeing Starliner

Debris from Russian satellite forces Sunita Williams into emergency shelter

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams had to take emergency shelter on the ISS after the breakup of a defunct Russian satellite in space created more than 100 trackable debris

Sunita Williams stuck on ISS for over 2 weeks: What is causing the delay?

Nasa has delayed the return of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station as the space agency wants to conduct additional reviews of the spacecraft's technical issues

Nasa calls off a spacewalk after astronaut's suit observes water leakage

This is the second time Nasa has called off the spacewalk, after one had to be postponed when an astronaut reported discomfort in the spacesuit earlier this month

Sunita Williams stuck in space: After launch, Starliner's return delayed

Everything you need to know about Sunita Williams' space mission, Boeing Starliner setbacks and delays

Nasa erringly broadcasts simulation of stressed astronauts on space station

A female voice asks crew members to 'get commander back in his suit', check his pulse and provide him with oxygen, later saying his prognosis was 'tenuous'

Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore test unique Starliner piloting capability

On the way to the International Space Station aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore tested out a unique capability of the spacecraft on orbit manual piloting. Williams flew to space for the third time on Wednesday along with Wilmore, scripting history as the first members aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on a 25-hour flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Williams, 58, is the pilot for the flight test while Wilmore, 61, is the commander of the mission. Although the spacecraft is usually autonomous, the crew used the hand controller to point and aim the spacecraft during about two hours of free-flight demonstrations. During a far-field demo, they pointed Starliner's nose toward the Earth so that its communications antenna on the back of the Service Module was pointed at the Tracking and Data Relay satellites. They then moved the Starliner so that its solar array pointed at the sun to show they cou

Boeing's first astronaut flight called off due to last minute issues

A last-minute problem nixed Saturday's launch attempt for Boeing's first astronaut flight, the latest in a string of delays over the years. Two NASA astronauts were strapped in the company's Starliner capsule when the countdown automatically was halted at 3 minutes and 50 seconds by the computer system that controls the final minutes before liftoff. With only a split second to take off, there was no time to work the latest trouble and everything was called off. It was not immediately clear why the computers aborted the countdown. Launch controllers were evaluating the data, said United Launch Alliance's Dillon Rice. But it's possible the team could try again as soon as Sunday, depending on what went wrong. Technicians raced to the pad to help astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams out of the capsule atop the fully fuelled Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Within an hour of the launch abort, the hatch was reopened. It was the second launch attempt. The first

Last minute issue halts launch of Boeing's first astronaut flight

Boeing took another crack Saturday at launching astronauts for the first time aboard its new space capsule, after a delay for leak checks and rocket repairs. The company's Starliner capsule was due to rocket away at midday with a pair of test pilots to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay. The test drive should have happened years ago. But problems kept piling up, most recently a leak that went unnoticed until the first launch attempt with a crew in early May. NASA wants a backup to SpaceX, which has been flying astronauts for four years. United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket is providing the lift from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Nasa to soon provide advanced training to Indian astronauts: Garcetti

NASA will soon provide advanced training to Indian astronauts, with the goal of mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station, a top American diplomat said Friday.? US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti made these remarks while speaking at the "US-India Commercial Space Conference: Unlocking Opportunities for US & Indian Space Startups," hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and the US Commercial Service (USCS) in Bangalore. NASA will soon provide advanced training to Indian astronauts, with the goal of mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station, hopefully, this year or shortly thereafter, which was one of the promises of our leaders' visit together. And soon we will launch the NISAR satellite from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Center to monitor all resources, including ecosystems, the Earth's surface, natural hazards, sea level rise, and the cryosphere, Garcetti said, according to a USIBC press statement issued here. You see whether it's the ...

Mission is to push Indians to see Majestic Blue Ball: Gopichand Thotakura

Thotakura discusses his aspirations for an orbital space journey to see India from the space, collaborating with an Indian space startup, and becoming an inspiration for many in the future