LOS ANGELES – SpaceX and Boeing are each in the final stages of developing the spacecraft needed for the U.S. to once again fly astronauts, with NASA's leader estimating launches may happen as early as the first months of 2020.
"I think both systems could be ready in the first quarter of next year," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told CNBC on Thursday.
Bridenstine hopes to see both companies quickly reach the point of being able to safely launch NASA astronauts! Videos for NASA ' s Bridenstine : SpaceX And 1:32 NASA administrator explains Twitter spat with SpaceX MSN!! The capsules are being built under NASA's Commercial Crew program, which is the agency's solution to end reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft! 2:03 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and NASA chief Jim Bridenstine address Twitter spat REUTERS!! In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX for up to $2.6 billion and Boeing for up to $4.2 billion! 1:58 Elon Musk: SpaceX spent 'hundreds of millions' extra on NASA astronaut capsule CNBC!! Future Commercial Crew contracts would be up for grabs, as NASA would look to buy seats on Boeing's Starliner capsule and SpaceX's Crew Dragon! NASA, Space X resolve conflicts of contract tensions - The ...www.washingtonpost.com /technology/2019/10/11/ ...visits- spacex ...NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stopped by SpaceX's headquarters here Thursday. He toured the factory with SpaceX founder Elon Musk , took a spin in a spacecraft simulator, then met with the...!! Delays have plagued the program, as NASA intended the first launches to happen as early as 2017.
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Moon 2024: NASA Wants Ideas for Lunar Spacesuit Tech | Space
NASA is looking to the private sector to help mature and manufacture the spacesuit it will need for its future moon missions, the first of which is targeted for 2024.
The space agency plans to build and certify the new spacesuit, which is known as the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU). The first few suits, made in house, will be tested on the International Space Station in 2023 and worn by the astronauts who touch down on the lunar surface in 2024 on the Artemis III mission. ( Artemis is NASA's ambitious crewed lunar-exploration program, which aims to establish a long-term, sustainable human presence on and around the moon by 2028.)
But NASA wants some aid from industry thereafter. On Friday (Oct. 4), the agency published a request for information (RFI), asking for industry feedback to "refine and mature the acquisition strategy for production and services for lunar spacesuits," as NASA officials explained in a statement . (You can view the RFI here .)
NASA's newest mission, ICON, has launched - CNN
(CNN) NASA's ICON mission to explore where Earth's weather meets space weather launched Thursday evening at 10 p.m. ET from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
NASA Completes Tests Needed in Moon Return Mission
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA completed another milestone Saturday in the mission to go back to the moon.
The last of seven water flow tests were completed for the first Artemis mission at Kennedy Space Center.
Practice makes perfect, and ensuring the rocket and mobile launcher lifts off without a hitch requires testing every step of the way.
It's a sort of rehearsal of how things will go the day NASA astronauts go back to the moon. NASA Test Director Carlos Monge described that all hands are on deck, like it will be the day of the actual liftoff.
"We are excited to have a team in the fire room, we have all our support team, and it's very important we accomplish this to demonstrate our ability to support the mission," Monge said.
The water flow tests last about 30 seconds and once the water starts flowing there is no stopping it. The purpose of the sound suppression system is to dampen sound and vibrations to keep the rocket and the launch pad safe at liftoff.
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All-Female Flight Crew Took 120 Girls to NASA | Time
Delta Air Lines flew 120 girls from Salt Lake City, Utah, to NASA in Houston as part of an initiative to close the gender gap in aviation last week.
“We’re taking ownership to improve gender diversity by exposing girls at a young age and providing a pipeline so that 10 years from now, they will be the pilots in the Delta cockpit inspiring generations of women who follow,” said Beth Poole, general manager of pilot development at Delta, who helped begin the initiative in 2015.
FAA data from 2017 shows that women make up just over 7 percent of 609,306 pilots in the U.S., according to Women in Aviation, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of women in the industry.
Everyone involved in the plane’s takeoff, flight and landing — from pilots to ramp agents working on the ground — was a woman, the airline said.
NASA official hints first SLS launch could slip to mid-2021 - SpaceNews.com
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — While NASA continues to wait to set a new official date for the first launch of its Space Launch System, an agency official said Oct. 10 that the launch could slip as late as the middle of 2021.
NASA's formal estimate of the first launch of SLS, a mission called Artemis 1, remains late 2020. That date, though, assumes that everything will go exactly as planned for the remainder of the vehicle's development and testing.
"The schedule that we're managing to is very, very aggressive," said Ken Bowersox, acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA, during a presentation at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) here.
That schedule calls for finishing the core stage of the vehicle at the end of this year and shipping it to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for a static-fire test known as the Green Run. "In the best case, it's going to be five or six months" of testing there, he said.
NASA chief: SpaceX and Boeing have critical tests ahead but could fly astronauts in early 2020 https://t.co/1PCEUGVPKr CNBC (from Englewood Cliffs, NJ) Sun Oct 13 20:01:48 +0000 2019
I sat down with NASA Administrator @JimBridenstine at SpaceX's launch control on Thursday. The key takeaway: As mu… https://t.co/a0HfafvlM8 thesheetztweetz (from Southern California & New York) Sun Oct 13 20:12:34 +0000 2019
Administrator Bridenstine is visiting @SpaceX headquarters today to see the progress being made on @Commercial_Crew… https://t.co/Uza4lvsJl1 NASA Thu Oct 10 20:25:31 +0000 2019
VIDEO: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and NASA chief Jim Bridenstine reaffirm their commitment to send American astronauts in… https://t.co/PnOJBPwVXV AFP (from France) Fri Oct 11 12:59:00 +0000 2019
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