threelonmusketeers

• When Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket will fly again?
• Phantom Space delays Daytona launch, again.
• It appears the Minotaur IV rocket still exists.
• French launch firm gets some funding runway.
• RFA gets a new CEO.
• Blue Origin launches all-female mission.
• Bahamas to SpaceX: Let's press pause.
• NASA will fly on Soyuz for a while longer
• Falcon 9 sets reuse record.
• The real story behind the Space Shuttle legislation.

The bottom line is that there is no relevant federal definition of an astronaut. Duffy's own agency certainly doesn't claim responsibility for making that designation.

Regardless, it's not really his call. You may not like Perry's music or her association with Dr. Luke. But if she wants to call herself an astronaut, there's no one who can tell her she's not. Personally, I'm happy to call her one, along with the many other amazing women who have only reached space in the last few years because of the suborbital space tourism vehicles developed by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. The more the merrier.

I find it much better to live in a world where space tourism is actually happening, rather than one in which it is not.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/36315789

During a public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) April 17, members expressed concerns about growing risks as the station nears its projected end in 2030.

“The ISS has entered the riskiest period of its existence,” said Rich Williams, a member of the panel, arguing there were “increasing risks” to the station.

Some of those risks are problems the station has been facing for years, such as leaks in a vestibule of the station’s Zvezda module called PrK. Russian and American experts have been investigating small cracks seen in PrK for several years, with no resolution on their cause or how to best address them.

Williams said officials from NASA and Roscosmos are scheduled to meet later this month in Moscow to update efforts to mitigate risks on the cracking. In the meantime, he said ISS managers have implemented procedures such as limiting repressurization of the vestibule, which links a docking port to the rest of the station. “The panel has considered this one of our highest concerns,” he said.

The station is dealing with several other issues, such as keeping sufficient spare parts for life support systems and delays with cargo resupply vehicles. That latter concern involves both the delays in the first flight of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser vehicle, now expected no earlier than late summer. and Northrop Grumman scrapping its NG-22 Cygnus mission to the ISS, which was scheduled to launch in June, because of damage to the spacecraft incurred during shipping.

Credit to u/DoctorSov in The Other Place.

Source: Peter Hague

During a public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) April 17, members expressed concerns about growing risks as the station nears its projected end in 2030.

“The ISS has entered the riskiest period of its existence,” said Rich Williams, a member of the panel, arguing there were “increasing risks” to the station.

Some of those risks are problems the station has been facing for years, such as leaks in a vestibule of the station’s Zvezda module called PrK. Russian and American experts have been investigating small cracks seen in PrK for several years, with no resolution on their cause or how to best address them.

Williams said officials from NASA and Roscosmos are scheduled to meet later this month in Moscow to update efforts to mitigate risks on the cracking. In the meantime, he said ISS managers have implemented procedures such as limiting repressurization of the vestibule, which links a docking port to the rest of the station. “The panel has considered this one of our highest concerns,” he said.

The station is dealing with several other issues, such as keeping sufficient spare parts for life support systems and delays with cargo resupply vehicles. That latter concern involves both the delays in the first flight of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser vehicle, now expected no earlier than late summer. and Northrop Grumman scrapping its NG-22 Cygnus mission to the ISS, which was scheduled to launch in June, because of damage to the spacecraft incurred during shipping.