Flying Magazine
• John Barry
An examination of the Columbia space shuttle disaster argues that the failures behind the tragedy were not unique to a single mission. The same weaknesses can persist across aerospace operations, from maintenance hangars to flight decks, making organizational discipline and safety oversight as critical as technical performance.
Human Spaceflight & Space Stations
Latest source-backed stories
NASA continues to assess flight opportunities for Starliner-1 as work with Boeing on the CST-100 vehicle advances. A NASA official characterized progress as “good” but declined to provide a target launch date, leaving the timing of the program’s next uncrewed mission unresolved.
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An examination of the Columbia space shuttle disaster argues that the failures behind the tragedy were not unique to a single mission. The same weaknesses can persist across aerospace operations, from maintenance hangars to flight decks, making organizational discipline and safety oversight as critical as technical performance.
NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. The observatory will travel nearly 1 million miles from Earth to reach the same orbital “sweet spot” as the James Webb Space Telescope, enabling wide-field science aimed at discoveries currently impossible from existing assets.
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Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company is “feeling pretty good” about Starliner’s prospects for a this-year launch, signaling improving confidence in the program’s timeline and readiness posture after ongoing development work.
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ESA has tapped Aalyria for a solar-system network-operations center and commissioned an optical ground station in Luxembourg aimed at ultra-secure, quantum-enabled satellite communications. SES will route station data via its O3b mPOWER network ahead of Starlab. Italy’s PRISMA Second Generation hyperspectral mission is moving toward a 2031 launch with Thales Alenia Space and OHB Italia.
Boeing says it remains in coordination with NASA to determine when the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle can fly its next mission to the International Space Station as a cargo flight. The update centers on scheduling decisions tied to readiness and mission planning.
NASA has secured the fuel supply for its next-generation Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, positioning the observatory for an August launch. The fueling milestone advances Roman’s final countdown work, building on its recent arrival at Kennedy Space Center for prelaunch servicing.
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The European Space Agency has opened a call to examine the feasibility of repurposing Lunar Link—a communications system originally developed for NASA’s now-paused Gateway space station—into a dedicated lunar communications capability. The effort targets a future-focused architecture for lunar connectivity.
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