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Added on the 22/12/2019 14:15:45 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
Boeing launches its Starliner capsule on a crewless eight-day journey to the International Space Station and back, a key test mission for NASA's plans to end US dependence on Russia for space rides. IMAGES
Boeing's beleaguered Starliner returns to Earth on without the astronauts who traveled in it to the International Space Station, after NASA deemed the risk too great. The gumdrop-shaped capsule landed gently at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at approximately 0401 GMT Saturday, its descent slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags, having departed the ISS around six hours earlier. IMAGES
Two US astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing's Starliner will have to return home with rival SpaceX, NASA says. "NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return with Crew 9 next February, and that Starliner will return uncrewed," NASA administrator Bill Nelson tells reporters. The return of Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams has been delayed by thruster malfunctions of the Boeing spacecraft. SOUNDBITE
NASA unveils its Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 2 space mission, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral in Florida. The mission scheduled for late 2024, will take a crew of four astronauts to the Moon. IMAGES
A NASA mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid to see if its course can be altered blasts off from California. The SpaceX rocket carrying the experiment lifted off at 10:21 pm Pacific Time (0621 GMT Wednesday) from Vandenberg Space Force Base, NASA TV's livestream showed. IMAGES