The 38-page document, released Wednesday, paints the manufacturer’s quality control practices as inadequate and its workforce as insufficiently trained, blaming it for cost increases and schedule delays in the development of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B. Yet the space agency has neglected to punish Boeing financially for these flaws, arguing that doing so would run contrary to the terms of its contract.

The heavy-lift rocket, a more powerful configuration of NASA’s existing SLS Block 1, is intended to make its maiden voyage in 2028 on the Artemis IV mission, a crewed lunar landing. It has been under development since 2014. Boeing is under contract to build Block 1B’s Exploration Upper Stage (EUS)—which will increase the SLS’ cargo capacity by about 40 percent—as well as the core stages for Block 1 on Artemis I and the upcoming Artemis II. Other SLS contractors include Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman.

A Day Late, A Dollar Short

Originally, the EUS was allocated a budget of $962 million and intended to fly on Artemis II, which in January was pushed to no earlier than September 2025. But by the OIG’s estimate, EUS costs are expected to balloon to $2 billion through 2025 and reach $2.8 billion by the time Artemis IV lifts off in 2028.

The office projects total SLS Block 1B costs will hit $5.7 billion before then—that’s more than $700 million over the Agency Baseline Commitment (ABC) NASA made last year. The EUS, at nearly triple its original budget, would account for close to half of those costs.

Add to that an expected six-year delay in the delivery of the system, and the OIG predicts Artemis IV’s launch could be postponed.

“NASA’s fiscal year 2024 SLS Program budget projections do not account for the additional funds needed for EUS development in fiscal years 2024 through 2027,” the report says. “Without additional funding, scheduled work will continue to be pushed into subsequent years as has been the case for the EUS over the last decade, leading to further cost increases and schedule delays.”

For example, the OIG says, NASA is evaluating potential risks to the EUS stage controller and avionics that could delay its delivery by another 14 months. NASA officials disagreed with the analysis.

Mismanaged and Inexperienced

The OIG interviewed officials at NASA headquarters, Marshall Space Flight Center, Michoud Assembly Facility, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and Boeing. It also reviewed NASA and its contractors’ budgets, contract obligations, and quality control documents, among other materials.

In short, the office found that Boeing’s quality management system at Michoud does not adhere to NASA or international standards.

For example, Boeing Defense’s Earned Value Management System (EVMS)—which NASA uses to measure contract cost and schedule progress and is required on all projects with a lifecycle cost greater than $250M—has been disapproved by the Department of Defense since 2020. Officials claim this precludes Boeing from reliably predicting an EUS delivery date.

“Boeing’s process for addressing contractual noncompliance has been ineffective, and the company has generally been nonresponsive in taking corrective actions when the same quality control issues reoccur,” the OIG says.

The DCMA has issued several corrective action requests (CARs), handed down when quality control issues are identified, for the EVMS. Between September 2021 and September 2023, the agency issued Boeing a whopping 71 CARs after identifying quality control issues in the manufacturing of core and upper stages at Michoud. According to officials, that’s a massive number for a system that has been in development for so long.

“Boeing officials incorrectly approved hardware processing under unacceptable environmental conditions, accepted and presented damaged seals to NASA for inspection, and used outdated versions of work orders,” the report says. “DCMA also found that Boeing personnel made numerous administrative errors through changes to certified work order data without proper documentation.”

According to Safety and Mission Assurance officials at NASA and DCMA officials at Michoud, Boeing’s quality control issues stem from a workforce that is, by and large, unqualified.

During a visit to Michoud in 2023, for example, inspectors discovered that welding on a component of the SLS Core Stage 3 did not meet NASA standards. Per the report, unsatisfactory welding performed on a set of fuel tanks led directly to a seven-month delay in EUS completion.

“According to NASA officials, the welding issues arose due to Boeing’s inexperienced technicians and inadequate work order planning and supervision,” the OIG says. “The lack of a trained and qualified workforce increases the risk that Boeing will continue to manufacture parts and components that do not adhere to NASA requirements and industry standards.”

Complicating matters further is the relocation of SLS core stage production for Artemis III from Michoud to Kennedy, which will require Boeing to transition a decade of production processes developed at the former site to the latter.

The OIG said the manufacturer is developing a more robust, hands-on training program that could revamp its workforce but is long overdue.

“Some technicians reported they had to hunt through layers of documentation to identify required instructions and documentation of work history and key decisions related to the hardware,” the report says.

Further, maintaining that workforce may be difficult—the OIG predicts Boeing will spend an average of $26 million per month on EUS personnel through 2027. That was the norm for the company from February to August 2023.

Boeing management has also dropped the ball at higher levels. For instance, in the leadup to Artemis I, Boeing underestimated the complexity of building the SLS core stage, and EUS funding had to be redirected to that project.

“This ultimately led to a nearly one-year delay in EUS work and an additional $4 billion in funding to Boeing to cover the costs for the core stage development work,” according to the OIG.

In addition, NASA officials believe Boeing’s supply chain woes are of its own making, stemming from late negotiations and contract agreements.

Next Steps for NASA

The OIG report paints the picture of a company in disarray from top to bottom.

The office did not pin the blame entirely on Boeing. It criticized NASA, for example, for spending more than $3 billion over ten years without submitting an ABC to Congress and the Office of Budget and Management. The ABC is the only official cost and schedule baseline used to measure project performance against expectations.

The office’s four recommendations, however, center around the manufacturer.

First, the OIG calls on the associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD), alongside the agency’s assistant administrator for procurement and chief of safety and mission assurance, to collaborate with Boeing on a more robust, NASA-approved quality management system. It also recommends officials penalize the company financially for its previous violations.

The OIG further directs the ESDMD to conduct a cost overrun analysis of Boeing’s EUS contract to minimize the impact to Artemis missions. Finally, it asks the associate administrator to coordinate with the DCMA to ensure Boeing’s compliance with EVMS requirements.

NASA agreed with three of the four recommendations and proposed actions to take. Interestingly, though, it rejected the suggestion of fining Boeing.

“NASA interprets this recommendation to be directing NASA to institute penalties outside the bounds of the contract,” said Catherine Koerner, deputy associate administrator of the ESDMD, in NASA’s response to the report. “There are already authorities in the contract, such as award fee provisions, which enable financial ramifications for noncompliance with quality control standards.”

Essentially, the agency believes it can keep Boeing in check by rewarding good behavior rather than penalizing mismanagement. The OIG, predictably, disagrees, characterizing NASA as “unresponsive” to what it considers significant safety concerns.

“In the end, failure to address these issues may not only hinder the Block 1B’s readiness for Artemis IV but also have a cascading impact on the overall sustainability of the Artemis campaign and NASA’s deep space human exploration efforts,” the report says.

Boeing will look to improve some of its quality control issues under the leadership of new CEO Kelly Ortberg, the ex-boss of Rockwell Collins who took over after the ousting of former CEO Dave Calhoun.

Calhoun’s departure this month comes as the company continues to be grilled over the loss of a door plug on a Boeing 737 Max 9 in January as well as persistent issues with Starliner, its semireusable spacecraft under contract with NASA for astronaut rotation missions to the  International Space Station. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may end up spending eight months on the orbital laboratory, rather than eight days as intended.

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By the time the first manned moon landing took place on July 20, 1969, Charles Schulz had already sent Snoopy into space in the panels of the cartoon. The anthropomorphic dog had a rich fantasy life, and adventure and aviation was part of it. He often donned a cloth flying helmet and red scarf and turned his doghouse into a Sopwith Camel.

According to NASA, Snoopy has been part of its team for more than 50 years. When you see photographs of astronaut workspaces in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, they often show Snoopy toys on desks or bookshelves. 

Snoopy joined NASA in 1968 as the mascot for the manned spaceflight program. According to multiple articles written about Snoopy joining NASA, it was seen as a risky move, because just months earlier in January 1967, the Apollo 1 capsule caught fire while on the launch pad, killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. No one wanted to make light of the serious business of spaceflight.

But Snoopy proved he had the right stuff. Snoopy’s first foray into space—outside a drawing in the pages of the comic strip—was in 1968 when astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and Bill Anders took Snoopy lapel pins with them aboard Apollo 8. This became a tradition, and according to NASA, Snoopy is the only NASA astronaut with a career that spans from Apollo to Artemis 1. 

A Snoopy toy beagle has been to the moon, orbited the Earth in a space shuttle, and been to the International Space Station. 

Snoopy became so important that NASA had in-house artists to draw his likeness. The agency also created the Silver Snoopy Award‘, which is a lapel pin given to NASA employees who go above and beyond their duties and provide valuable contributions to make sure the missions are safe and successful.

The award is only bestowed once in a person’s career and the criteria is stringent. What the person does to receive the award must in some fashion support and improve spaceflight. Each lapel pin is flown in space before it is awarded to the team member. 

Meanwhile, Back on Earth…

Terrestrial aviation also celebrates Schulz. In Santa Rosa, California, pilots can fly into Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (KSTS). Schulz lived in Santa Rosa for 30 years.

The airport was used by the U.S. Army during World War II, and in 1946 transitioned to civilian use. 

Today, Snoopy in his WWI flying ace persona atop his doghouse is part of the airport logo. In addition, fixes for ILS for Runway 32 have Peanuts-inspired names. Because instrument approach fixes are required to have five letters in their names the FAA could be creative.  There is an intermediate approach fix labeled LUSEE, and the glideslope intercept is PIGPN.

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SpaceX this week quietly added a “Human Spaceflight” tab to its website, listing four destinations to which customers can book flights: Earth orbit, the ISS, lunar orbit, and Mars. It is unclear when the new offerings were added.

Pricing information for the missions does not appear to be available. But the webpage directs customers to an email address, humanspaceflight@spacex.com, where they can inquire to book a flight. Missions will begin later this year, the page says, starting with flights to Earth orbit.

FLYING reached out to that email and SpaceX’s press email but did not receive an immediate response.

SpaceX describes its Earth orbit missions as offering a view of the planet from 300 kilometers up. The missions, seating two to four passengers, will last three to six days, offering 360-degree views.

According to the webpage, seats and “on-orbit research opportunities” will be available in late 2024. Regarding the latter offering, SpaceX says it is seeking “exceptional science and research ideas” to study ways to make life in space and on other planets a possibility.

The in-orbit research missions would be facilitated by the company’s Dragon capsule, which since 2012 has ferried more than 1,000 research experiments to low-Earth orbit and the ISS. Customers can submit a research proposal, which SpaceX will either accept or decline. If accepted, the applicant will put together a detailed plan, working with the company to finalize a mission profile, train crews, certify hardware, and collect data.

Two human spaceflight research opportunities are listed on SpaceX’s website: fitness-focused and exploration-focused research. The latter centers largely on the development of medical capabilities for long-duration missions—perhaps to Mars, for example. Mental and physical health and virtual or augmented reality are listed as areas of research interest.

“All Dragon and Starship missions have the ability to conduct scientific research to improve life back on Earth as well as raise awareness to a global audience,” the page reads.

Ten-day commercial missions to the ISS, according to SpaceX, will be available as early as 2025. These would transport up to four people or 192 kilograms of cargo to the orbital laboratory, where passengers could conduct research or simply pay a visit.

Missions to lunar orbit and Mars do not have listed timelines. But the webpage advertises seven-day trips around the moon with up to 12 passengers, with private quarters included. A mission profile for flights to Mars simply lists the Red Planet’s day length, force of gravity, and average distance from Earth.

For all missions, passengers will don a 3D-printed helmet “with customized padding [that] houses microphones for communication and valves that regulate the suit’s pressure systems,” per SpaceX’s description.

The vehicles listed under the Human Spaceflight tab are the Dragon capsule, which is already in use by NASA, and Starship, the reusable upper stage of the company’s massive spacecraft.

Starship and SpaceX’s Super Heavy launcher combined form the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed, standing close to 400 feet tall when stacked. However, the gargantuan vehicle has been grounded after each of its three uncrewed orbital test flights.

Interestingly, the addition of human spaceflight offerings to SpaceX’s website suggests that the company expects to build on Starship’s most recent flight, and quickly—fast enough to offer missions to lunar orbit in the not-so-distant future. The jumbo rocket is also a key component of NASA’s Artemis II and Artemis III missions to the moon’s orbit and surface, respectively.

SpaceX is not the only company to offer cosmic tourism for paying customers, nor will it be the first to actually deliver on that offering.

Blue Origin in 2021 was the first to fly humans beyond the atmosphere, ferrying CEO Jeff Bezos and Star Trek icon William Shatner to the edge of space. Virgin Galactic followed in June 2023 with its inaugural commercial launch and is now offering monthly suborbital flights for a few hundred thousand dollars per ticket.

Musk and SpaceX’s ambitions, however, are grander than those of their rivals, culminating in the establishment of human colonies on the moon and other planets. But first the company will need to prove it can safely fly humans around the Earth.

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Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, a semireusable vessel to the ISS that has been marred by nearly a decade of delays, will finally make its first crewed flight test on Monday, barring any further hiccups. Boeing on Friday confirmed that NASA gave Starliner the “go to proceed.”

If the mission—intended to be Starliner’s final test flight—is successful, NASA will work to certify the spacecraft for routine, six-month crew rotation missions to the space station, beginning with Starliner-1, scheduled for 2025. Starliner’s crew capsule is designed to be reusable over 10 missions.

Commercial Crew is one of the linchpins of U.S. space exploration efforts. The program—a public-private partnership between NASA and companies such as Boeing, SpaceX, and Blue Origin—transports and swaps out the astronaut crews responsible for critical research on the orbital laboratory.

Used by astronauts and private companies from around the world, the space station is the only facility that allows researchers to investigate the effects of long duration spaceflight as NASA gears up for future missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Since crew rotation missions began in 2020, all eight missions—including Crew-8, which is still in progress—have been facilitated by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The missions have also used the company’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Boeing—which since 2014 has battled SpaceX for supremacy in the commercial crew program—has yet to launch a crewed flight of its Starliner, which NASA views as a redundant but important alternative to Crew Dragon. But the manufacturer on Monday has a chance to throw its hat in the ring.

“As the final flight test for Starliner, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test will validate the transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, in-orbit operational capabilities, and return to Earth with astronauts aboard,” NASA said in a mission profile on its website.

A successful crewed flight test would represent the final barrier to the start of Boeing’s commercial contract with NASA, under which the partners are obligated to complete six crew rotation missions. These would represent the manufacturer’s first commercial human spaceflight missions. SpaceX, so far, has flown astronauts to the space station 11 times.

A Decade of Delays

Commercial Crew is NASA’s effort to transport astronauts to the ISS from American soil, using U.S.-built rockets and spacecraft. By involving private companies such as Boeing, a rarity for the agency in years past, the idea was to reduce costs and complexity while keeping missions safe and on schedule.

Boeing unveiled the concept for the CST-100 Starliner—with CST standing for Crew Space Transportation and 100 denoting the Kármán Line, a boundary 100 kilometers above the Earth informally considered to be the edge of space—in 2010. The manufacturer claimed the spacecraft could be operational within five years.

That prediction did not come to fruition. By 2014, NASA had narrowed down its search for a reusable Commercial Crew capsule to two candidates: Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Each company was awarded billions of dollars to build and certify an aircraft by 2017, the year they were expected to be ready for a first crewed flight test. Boeing’s $4.2 billion contract includes six service missions plus uncrewed and crewed test flights to the space station.

Neither company met its deadline. But Crew Dragon made its first flight with astronauts in 2020. The same can not be said for the Starliner program, which for nearly a decade has been bogged down by delays.

The first uncrewed Starliner Orbital Test Flight Mission, scheduled for 2017, was delayed three times to 2019. Half an hour into that flight, an anomaly forced NASA to abort a planned docking with the space station. Though the mission to the orbital laboratory was scrapped, the spacecraft was safely recovered.

A second uncrewed orbital test flight, OFT-2, was also delayed more than a year due to valve problems late in the initial countdown. It eventually launched in 2022, reaching the ISS for the first time and meeting all mission objectives.

The prelude to Starliner’s first crewed test flight sounds like a familiar tune. The mission was pushed back several times in 2023, culminating in an indefinite delay caused by a pair of issues discovered just weeks before a planned launch in July.

All told, the program has overrun planned costs by $1.5 billion. According to a NASA Office of the Inspector General report, the space agency committed to additional flights and payments not specified in its original contract, in a bid to keep Boeing as a contractor.

The delays to Starliner have forced NASA to put all of its eggs in SpaceX’s basket, jeopardizing Commercial Crew missions should Crew Dragon—which so far has proven reliable—experience issues. But with the agency giving its all clear last week, the long-awaited rocket spacecraft appears set to finally make its debut.

The Mission

Starliner was designed and built by Boeing with the help of more than 425 suppliers. Early missions, including next week’s planned flight, will be launched by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V launch vehicle. But the spacecraft is billed as “launch vehicle agnostic,” compatible with vehicles in the medium-lift launch class.

Starliner’s unique weldless structure was devised with reusability in mind. Its service modules are expendable, but its crew module can be reused up to 10 times, according to Boeing. The crew module can fit seven crewmembers, but NASA missions will include four or five astronauts.

Combined, the crew and service modules have 40 reaction control system thrusters, which aid in control and steering. While the vehicle is designed to be autonomous, Boeing has trained the crew to be able to take over.

The service module has an additional 20 orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters and four launch abort engines, which, combined with a pusher abort system, provide an escape route in the case of emergency during launch or ascent. Stacked on top of Atlas V, the spacecraft stands just over 170 feet.

Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams will command next week’s planned mission. Both are experienced NASA astronauts with multiple spaceflights in the books. During the crewed test flight, Wilmore and Williams will be the first to launch on Starliner and Atlas V and manually control Starliner.

The astronauts’ goal will be to validate the transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, and in-orbit capabilities, for future missions. 

Before, during, and after their weeklong stay on the space station, the crew will perform an array of tests designed to support the spacecraft’s certification. These include evaluations of equipment such as suits and seats from prelaunch through ascent, as well as assessments of communications, manual and automated navigation, life support systems, and thrusters while aboard the orbital lab.

Boeing has been “tasked with operating the entire mission,” including launch, in-orbit operations, landing, recovery and refurbishment. The company is also responsible for crew training, mission planning, spacecraft and launch vehicle assembly, and testing and integration.

Starliner arrived at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 16, where it will launch from historic Space Launch Complex-41. To this point, the launch pad has only hosted uncrewed spacecraft. The spacecraft has already been stacked, with crew preparations well underway.

About 15 minutes into the mission, the Starliner capsule will separate from the booster. Orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters will kick in about 30 minutes in, performing an engine burn to align it in orbit and start the approximately daylong sojourn to the space station.

Cameras onboard the capsule will pick out the moving laboratory from among a sea of fixed stars as it approaches to within a few hundred feet over the following few hours. Once flight controllers give the all clear, Starliner will approach and dock autonomously with one of two Boeing-built docking adapters—another critical test.

NASA will provide continuous coverage leading up to the docking through the opening of the hatch. On Thursday, four crewmembers already aboard the space station will relocate a Crew Dragon capsule to a different docking port, making way for the SpaceX rival’s alternative.

After spending a few days evaluating the spacecraft and its systems, Wilmore and Williams will return to Starliner, which will slowly undock from the space station and position itself over the Pacific Ocean. The service module will slow it from orbital speeds of about 17,500 mph as the crew module detaches. It will then accelerate back to Earth into a parachute landing in the Western U.S., touching down at just 4 mph.

What It Means

Starliner’s first crewed test flight has plenty of implications for Boeing, NASA, and U.S. ambitions in space more broadly.

On the commercial side, failure could deal a blow to the aerospace giant, which is under contract for six NASA service missions following the flight. The company also has ambitions to attract other customers, such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, describing NASA as Starliner’s “anchor customer.”

The test flight comes as Boeing rival SpaceX continues to thrive. Before Boeing completes its first crewed mission to the space station, its rival has already completed 11 such missions—eight crew rotation missions and three private astronaut missions with customer Axiom Space—and is preparing to fly astronauts to the moon on NASA’s Artemis III.

In addition, Boeing plans to sell the extra fifth seat on its NASA missions to private and commercial- or government-sponsored astronauts. Any ambitions for private commercial spaceflight will depend on next week’s mission.

NASA would also suffer from another setback to Starliner. The space agency hopes for the space station to be continuously crewed as it uses the orbital laboratory to explore future missions to more distant destinations, such as the moon or Mars. At the moment, it is too reliant on SpaceX.

“Our hearts and souls are in this spacecraft, and a little part of us will be lifting off with Butch and Suni,” said Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager of NASA Commercial Crew and a 13-year veteran of the program.

NASA envisions visiting spacecraft such as Starliner being used as “safe havens” in the event of a contingency aboard the space station, such as depressurization, fire, or potential collision.

One such contingency took place in December 2022, when the Soyuz MS-22 capsule that transported NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the space station sprung a coolant leak, stranding Rubio and two Roscosmos cosmonauts in orbit for months. Rubio’s 355 consecutive days aboard the ISS—his first stint in space—are now a NASA spaceflight record.

SpaceX has been a reliable partner for NASA, having not suffered an incident in service thus far. But the agency wants a contingency plan. For example, in Rubio’s case, NASA was prepared to get its astronaut home in an extra seat on a scheduled Crew Dragon launch. The backup spacecraft was not needed, but it could have rescued Rubio had Roscosmos not delivered a replacement Soyuz in time.

Boeing is also developing launch vehicles for planned NASA lunar landings during Artemis II and Artemis III. Starliner is further intended to transport personnel to the Orbital Reef, a new space station under development by Blue Origin in partnership with NASA.

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NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have agreed to facilitate missions to the moon using a crewed lunar rover designed, built, and operated by Japan. The enclosed and pressurized rover is designed to serve as a mobile habitat and laboratory for human personnel.

In exchange, NASA will set aside space for two JAXA astronauts on future moon landing missions under its Artemis program. Artemis is essentially the successor to the Apollo program, with the aim of initiating a new generation of lunar exploration.

NASA expects the rover, which will give crews more time to work on the lunar surface, to land on the moon during the Artemis VII mission, which is tentatively scheduled for 2030 or 2031. The agency anticipates it will have a 10-year lifespan and be used on subsequent Artemis missions. Japan will design, develop, and operate the rover, while NASA will provide launch and delivery to the moon.

“America no longer will walk on the Moon alone,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “With this new rover, we will uncover groundbreaking discoveries on the lunar surface that will benefit humanity and inspire the Artemis generation.”

Nelson and Masahito Moriyama, Japan’s minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, signed the agreement Tuesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The following day, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced “a shared goal for a Japanese national to be the first non-American astronaut to land on the moon on a future Artemis mission, assuming important benchmarks are achieved.”

A crewed, pressurized rover called the Lunar Cruiser has been under development by JAXA and Toyota since 2020. The vehicle uses hydrogen fuel cell technology found in the automaker’s electric vehicles. It could transport astronauts across the lunar surface for up to 30 days and cruise for up to 6,200 miles, providing ample time to perform research and conduct experiments. The partners are further developing systems to automate most of the driving and navigation.

The Lunar Cruiser’s tires are made from metal, and an onboard fuel cell uses solar energy and stored water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, generating electricity. The rover can also convert electricity stored in its battery pack back into hydrogen and oxygen.

According to NASA, two astronauts will use the vehicle to traverse the moon’s south pole during Artemis VII. Toyota expects it to be ready for launch by 2029.

“The pressurized rover will be a powerful contribution to the overall Artemis architecture as Japan and the U.S. go hand in hand with international and industry partners to the lunar surface and beyond,” said JAXA president Hiroshi Yamakawa.

The lunar rover arrangement falls under a framework agreement signed between the U.S. and Japan in 2023, which signifies the countries’ “mutual interest in peaceful exploration.”

The agreement covers a wide range of activities from science to exploration and will include Japanese participation in NASA’s Dragonfly mission, which will study Saturn’s largest moon, called Titan, using a dual-quadcopter lander. JAXA will also contribute to the development of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. In return, NASA will help develop JAXA’s SOLAR-C sun-observing satellite.

The U.S. space agency will allocate crew space for a JAXA astronaut on a future Artemis mission to deploy Gateway, a lunar orbital space station. An agreement between the two calls for Japan to supply the space station’s environmental control and life support systems and cargo transportation.

Artemis I—an uncrewed lunar flight test of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion capsule—splashed down in December 2022 after a 25-day, 1.4 million-mile jaunt around the moon and back. However, issues unearthed during the flight have delayed Artemis II, a crewed lunar flyby, and Artemis III, intended to be the first crewed lunar landing in half a century, to September 2025 and 2026, respectively.

Artemis III astronauts would become the first humans to visit the moon’s south pole, where they will collect lunar samples, images, and other data. NASA describes the mission as “one of the most complex undertakings of engineering and human ingenuity in the history of deep space exploration.”

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Starship’s next mission, IFT-4, will be the massive rocket’s fourth since it made its maiden voyage in April 2023. The spacecraft launched for the third time in March, but it was also grounded by the FAA for a third time after SpaceX was unable to recover the rocket and booster when they reentered the atmosphere.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk on Wednesday said SpaceX is now preparing for that fourth test flight. The goal, he said, is for the spacecraft to survive the fireball that forms around it during reentry, when temperatures reach their highest point.

Gwynne Shotwell, chief operating officer of SpaceX, said last week that the flight could happen as soon as early May. It will not have a payload.

SpaceX completed a full-duration static fire test of the Starship upper stage’s six Raptor engines on Monday, less than two weeks after its third voyage. A static fire test involves the loading of propellant and firing of the engines while the rocket is bolted to the launch mount. It is intended to ensure the engine is functioning properly and assess factors like pressure and temperature.

The company on Wednesday completed a second static fire of a single upper-stage engine using the spacecraft’s header tanks. These fuel the engines as they fire shortly before landing, which returns the reusable rocket to a vertical orientation as it approaches the landing pad.

IFT-4, if it goes according to Musk’s plan, would mark the first time Starship and Super Heavy make it to orbit and back to Earth in two pieces. Each of the rocket’s first two test flights ended in explosions. But the third attempt, while still resulting in the loss of the rocket and booster, was comfortably SpaceX’s most successful one yet.

Starship’s six second-stage engines successfully powered on and carried the rocket to orbit for the first time. While in orbit, it achieved several more firsts, including a critical propellant transfer test that demonstrated a maneuver the spacecraft will need to perform on future missions to the moon and beyond, including for NASA. The space agency this month applauded the company’s effort.

Starship also demonstrated the ability to open and close its payload door, which could one day be used to deploy Starlink satellites and other cargo, while in orbit.

After coasting nearly halfway around the Earth, Starship reentered the atmosphere for the first time, adding to the milestones. But after that SpaceX lost communications with the rocket and announced it believed it to be lost.

Before Starship can fly again it will need to be cleared by the FAA, which initiated a mishap investigation following the third test flight. A mishap investigation is standard procedure whenever a launch does not go according to plan. The process concludes with SpaceX obtaining a fresh launch license and could take anywhere from a few months to a few weeks.

Musk, however, does not anticipate any future slowdowns for Starship. He earlier this month said in a post on X that SpaceX would aim for six more Starship launches this year, which would be an unprecedented number for a new super heavy-lift rocket.

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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, which concluded in September, sent NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi on a 186-day trip to the International Space Station, where they rendezvoused with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. But it was anything but a vacation.

“I used to joke about the fact that a lot of times in our videos, when we show what’s going on, we spend about a third of our time showing the fun stuff,” Bowen told FLYING at a media event at NASA Headquarters alongside his three crewmembers. “Work is way more than a third of the time we spend up there.”

The mission included several firsts. Rubio, for example, set the U.S. record for most consecutive days in space by the end of his 355-day stay, which was extended six months after the capsule that brought him to the space station was damaged. AlNeyadi became the first Arab to complete a spacewalk.

But the astronauts also conducted more than 200 experiments during their stay at the orbital lab—many of which could address pressing needs on Earth and far, far beyond.

To the Space Station and Back

Crew-6 began with the launch of a SpaceX Dragon Endeavor capsule, strapped to a Falcon 9 rocket, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Bowen, Hoburg, AlNeyadi, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev were its occupants. Rubio had launched previously aboard a Soyuz MS-22.

Bowen, a veteran of multiple trips to the space station, was right at home. But for Rubio, Hoburg, and AlNeyadi, Crew-6 was their first time in space.

“Learning to fly for the first couple days is pretty difficult,” Rubio said.

For AlNeyadi, adjusting to the lack of spatial awareness was the biggest challenge

“Everything is very quick aboard the space station…We have 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day,” AlNeyadi told FLYING.

Bowen said the orbital lab has come a long way since his first visit in 2008. He was part of several assembly missions, which doubled the space station’s occupancy from three to six, installed technology such as a water recycling system, and delivered research and stowage modules. Crews also replaced the laboratory’s batteries several times.

“We were part of that first step of really making the space station functional,” Bowen told FLYING. “We did a lot of things with just three people on board. But as soon as we got up to six people, the ability to do the actual science—the business of the space station—exploded.”

The astronauts spent the next six months growing plants, researching tissue chips for heart, brain, and cartilage tissue, and conducting hundreds of other experiments for ISS Expedition 69. NASA expeditions refer to the crew occupying the space station—Rubio, Bowen, Hoburg, and AlNeyadi were the 69th such team.

After finishing their work, the astronauts began reentry, splashing down on September 4 after 186 days.

“Becoming a plasma meteorite when you’re coming home is pretty exciting stuff,” said Rubio.

But the research and experiments the crew performed are expected to have an impact long after the mission’s conclusion.

Charting the Future

Despite Rubio’s excitement, launch and reentry may have been the dullest segment of the mission—the crew had more than 200 experiments to fill their time.

“The work is continuous; the work is ongoing,” said Bowen. “Maintaining the space station, like you maintain your house, takes a big chunk of your time. The amount of science we can do now is incredible. Every day we were up there, there’s four of us in the [U.S. Orbital Segment] working.”

Just days after the astronauts’ arrival, they received a cargo vehicle full of materials for experiments. Crewmembers worked throughout the day, sometimes together and sometimes individually, coming together at dinnertime to debrief.

“We are testing hundreds of technologies, and many of them are becoming spinoffs for humanity when utilized here on Earth,” AlNeyadi told FLYING.

For example, astronauts studied how they could grow plants such as tomatoes in harsh and unforgiving environments, either on Earth or in space. They also applied experimental medications to heart cells and printed biological material such as knee cartilage, using technology that could one day print organs for patients on the blue planet.

The crew even ran competitions with university students. Competing teams were able to program a flying robot and control its flight on the space station from Earth.

Perhaps the most consequential research involved a water recycling system, which allowed the astronauts to drink their own urine for the majority of their stay (move over, Bear Grylls). The system may sound outlandish, but it could hold real benefits for humanity.

“Imagine taking the same technology and providing it to people in need in remote areas where they lack water,” said AlNeyadi.

The experiments will also play a key role in NASA’s Artemis program: a series of missions intended to return Americans to the moon for the first time in half a century. According to the crew, learning to live and work in space will be essential for those journeys. Artemis II will send astronauts into lunar orbit in 2025, while Artemis III will attempt to land them on the moon’s surface the following year.

“Knowing that you’re affecting the future of humanity and inspiring future generations, that’s super important to us,” said Rubio.

As important as their work was, the astronauts would not have been able to complete it without finding ways to blow off a little steam.

One method was to simply go outside. Each crew member got the opportunity to complete a spacewalk, including AlNeyadi, who became the first Arab to accomplish the feat.

“Getting in the suit, going outside, and doing important repairs on the station while seeing those views of Earth was just very special,” said Hoburg.

The crew had to get creative at times—Bowen baked pies for Pi Day, and Rubio cut the other astronauts’ hair. But they found plenty of ways to exercise and have fun—and by the end of the mission, they had become a family.

“What a great group of people I had to hang out with for six months,” said Bowen. “It was just incredible.”

A Collective Effort

Crew-6 included the first astronaut of Salvadoran heritage to reach space (Rubio) and the first Arab to complete an extravehicular activity (AlNeyadi). Those feats are symptoms of a broader trend: the globalization of space exploration.

At one point during Expedition 69, there were 11 astronauts aboard the orbital laboratory, which is designed for a maximum of seven. Occupants hailed from the U.S., UAE, Russia, Denmark, and Japan.

“It’s a very intense period when you’re handing over to a new crew, because you’re basically teaching them a whole new lifestyle in a few weeks,” said Rubio.

But the transition was also a welcome development, according to Bowen.

“We actually get a chance to meet a lot of our colleagues around the world before we ever fly,” he said. “So having that crew come on board, I knew every one of them. It was a lot of fun. It’s just great to have new people on board—and it’s another sign you’re going home too.”

AlNeyadi said the UAE already has benefited greatly from its activities in the final frontier. The country’s space agency has only been around for two decades. But in that short time, it has sent a satellite, Martian probe, and the nation’s first astronaut, Hazza Al Mansouri, into space.

“That was an eye opener for everybody. After that, everybody—every young student in the school—wanted to be an astronaut,” said AlNeyadi, who was appointed UAE minister of youth this month.

The Emirati’s own trip has had an impact too. For example, he said it helped catalyze the UAE’s participation in NASA’s Lunar Gateway project, which aims to build a space station orbiting the moon. The country is the fifth to join the partnership.

NASA is also increasingly relying on private industry to help fill certain gaps for Artemis, a contrast to the government-heavy Apollo program. Rubio said he helped certify all SpaceX launch and recovery assets before his mission, a reflection of the agency’s tight relationship with it, Blue Origin, and other commercial partners.

The hope is that greater collaboration can kick off a groundbreaking new era for space travel, one in which humans are continuously occupying the final frontier.

Bowen shared a story about a pair of glasses he found floating aboard the space station, which he mistook for his own. They weren’t Rubio’s or Hoburg’s either, and AlNeyadi didn’t wear glasses. As the crew soon realized, they belonged to an astronaut who had stayed at the orbital lab years ago: a relic of humanity’s persistent effort to uncover the mysteries of space.

Crew-7 astronauts—picking up where Crew-6 left off—splashed down earlier this month, a few days after the Crew-8 team arrived. Perhaps they too will discover the remnants of explorations past. Undoubtedly, they will build on the foundations of previous missions and push humanity forward.

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The post NASA Astronauts Detail Daily Life, Firsts Aboard International Space Station appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The FAA on Thursday initiated its third mishap investigation into Starship after the 400-foot-tall spacecraft and booster were lost during its third orbital test flight. Both components are intended to be reusable.

Starship will remain grounded until the FAA concludes its investigation and awards a fresh launch license. However, Thursday’s flight undoubtedly built on previous Starship missions, during which the rocket and booster exploded minutes after takeoff. This time around, they flew halfway around the planet.

Starship stands taller than the Statue of Liberty and on Thursday generated nearly twice the thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System, which owned the previous record. Orbital test flights are intended to evaluate the spacecraft’s capabilities for NASA Artemis moon missions, which aim to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century.

Starship and the Super Heavy booster lifted off Thursday morning from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. The spacecraft generated 16 million pounds of thrust from 33 Raptor engines, the most ever in a rocket booster.

Unlike past attempts, Thursday’s mission, OT-3, traveled nearly halfway around the Earth as intended. For the first time, Starship reached space. But when the rocket reentered the atmosphere about 45 minutes into the mission, SpaceX lost communications. The company later said the vehicle did not survive reentry. Starship was intended to splash down in the Indian Ocean, and the booster in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, while not fully completed, the mission was vastly more successful than previous flights. Starship for the first time demonstrated the ability to reach orbital speeds and open its payload door—which could one day deploy Starlink satellites and other cargo—during flight.

Another crucial feat was a liquid oxygen transfer between two tanks, part of a NASA tipping-point demonstration and a key capability for missions to the moon and beyond.

A SpaceX representative estimated the company will need to complete 10 refueling missions before its Starship Human Landing System (HLS)—the capsule that will transport astronauts to the moon during Artemis III—can land on the lunar surface. The representative did not convey how many orbital test flights will be required, but Starship will need to complete at least one mission in full before moving to the next phase.

With three orbital test flights under Starship’s belt, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday predicted the rocket will complete six more this year—an unprecedented number for a new super heavy lift rocket.

Though the flight undoubtedly builds upon Starship’s previous missions, the FAA will nevertheless investigate the loss of communications, which it said affected both the rocket and booster.

A mishap investigation is standard whenever a launch does not go according to plan. The goal is to determine the root cause of the event and identify corrective actions to keep it from happening again.

The regulator said it would be involved in every step of the process. It will need to approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions the company intends to take, before a license can be reissued.

“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the agency said. “In addition, SpaceX may need to modify its license to incorporate any corrective actions and meet all other licensing requirements.”

No public injuries or property damage were reported from OT-3, the FAA said. That was not the case during Starship’s first test flight, which damaged buildings and sent plumes of ash and debris flying miles away.

The investigation into that incident closed within seven months, and the agency’s second inquiry was completed in just three months. Since Thursday’s test was far more successful than the previous two, and no injuries or damage were reported, the investigation timeline may be on the shorter side.

Accidents are not particularly uncommon for spacecraft. In fact, a Japanese rocket called Kairos and a Chinese model called Yuanzheng-1S both suffered anomalies this week. But the delays caused by Starship investigations may have implications for the Artemis missions.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on Thursday’s test flight. But with Americans’ return to the moon aboard Artemis III now delayed to 2026, the agency will be expecting a usable Starship HLS by then. Jim Free, associate administrator of NASA, predicted vehicle’s development may take more time than previously thought.

Musk, meanwhile, has touted Starship as a ferry to Mars, envisioning trips to the Red Planet carrying hundreds of humans at a time. Those ambitions will depend on SpaceX ironing out the kinks with the 400-foot-tall rocket and booster.

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The 10 astronauts had been selected as candidates for the training program from a highly competitive pool of about 12,000 applicants in 2021, NASA said. Their training included more than two years of basic training that entailed robotics, space station systems, and spacewalking.

The graduation milestone now means they may be assigned to future missions on the International Space Station or commercial space stations, as well as NASA’s Artemis moon mission campaign.

• READ MORE: Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Martian?

NASA identified the graduating astronauts as Nichole Ayers of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Marcos Berríos of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico; Chris Birch of Gilbert, Arizona; Deniz Bunham of Wasilla, Alaska; Luke Delaney of DeBary, Florida; Andre Douglas of Chesapeake, Virginia; Jack Hathaway of South Windsor, Connecticut; Anil Menon of Minneapolis; Chris Williams of Potomac, Maryland; and Jessica Wittner of Clovis, California.

United Arab Emirates astronauts Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad Al Mulla of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dabai also trained alongside the class as part of a long-standing international partnership.

• READ MORE: NASA Delays First Crewed U.S. Moon Landing in Half a Century to 2026

Help Wanted: Astronauts

NASA commenced its search for the next round of astronaut candidates Tuesday. Duties for the position include conducting research experiments, performing spacecraft maintenance, and serving as a public face for the space agency. Frequent travel also is required.

• READ MORE: ‘Odysseus’ Transmits First Lunar Landing Images

“Upon completing training, they will join the active astronaut corps and become eligible for spaceflight assignment,” NASA said in a statement. “Until assigned a spaceflight, they will have responsibilities within the astronaut office, ranging from supporting their fellow astronauts in space to advising on the development of new spacecraft.”

More information on the astronaut candidate program may be found here. The deadline for applying is April 2.

The post NASA Opens Search for Next Round of Artemis-Generation Astronauts appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission made history for completing the first successful moon landing by a company when its Nova-C autonomous lander Odysseus reached the South Pole region on February 22. 

On Wednesday afternoon, however, only hours of power fueling transmission to Earth remained.

• READ MORE: ‘Odysseus’ Lunar Lander Alive, Well… But Likely Not Upright

“We know we’re degrading in power,” Steve Altemus, CEO of Houston-based Intuitive Machines, said Wednesday during a press conference, adding that within five hours no more telemetry would be available.

When the power runs out, the lander will conduct a “quiet power down,” Altemus said, adding there may be an opportunity to attempt to repower it in about three weeks when the sun once again is in range of the lander’s solar panels.

• READ MORE: ‘Odysseus’ Transmits First Lunar Landing Images

Upon its descent, the Nova-C lander tilted over slowly and came to rest at an angle about 30 degrees above a 12-degree slope, Altemus said. Despite the less-than-upright landing, all of its payloads are transmitting data, according to the company.

• READ MORE: The ‘Odysseus’ Has Landed

“A soft touchdown on the moon is a great accomplishment,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator of exploration at NASA. 

As part of NASA’s commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis campaign, the IM-1 mission carried six NASA payloads conducting research to better understand the lunar environment. 

“This image retrieved from the lander on February 27 captures Odysseus’ landing strut during landing on February 22 performing its primary task, absorbing first contact with the lunar surface,” Intuitive Machines said in a mission update Wednesday. “Meanwhile, the lander’s liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine is still throttling, which provided stability. The company believes the two insights captured in this image enabled Odysseus to gently lean into the lunar surface, preserving the ability to return scientific data.”

The post ‘Odysseus’ Lunar Landing Mission Nears Completion appeared first on FLYING Magazine.