Keith’s note: I just spoke with Scripps News about the upcoming flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, the problems Boeing has had with the spacecraft, competition with SpaceX, and what is on the horizon (Blue Origin etc.) [Audio part 1] [Audio part 2]

Keith’s note: Crew 8 lifted off on time tonight and is now in orbit. They’ll be arriving at the International Space Station on Tuesday. I was on Bloomberg radio twice today and then on BBC World News TV [AUDIO] to provide some pre- and post-launch commentary. One thing that I noticed – and made mention of – are the names of the spacecraft involved. NASA TV’s hosts talked about the Crew Dragon “Endeavour” – which was named after Space Shuttle “Endeavour”. The Apollo 15 command module also named “Endeavour”. But NASA PAO seems to be uninterested in mentioning that these spaceships of exploration had a historic namesake i.e. Capt. James Cook’s H.M.S. Endeavour. Note that NASA kept the English spelling of Cook’s ship in all of the spacecraft named after it. Also, the Crew Dragon already in space and docked to ISS that will bring some of the current occupants home is named “Endurance” after Sir Ernest Shackleton’s famous antarctic exploration ship “Endurance” – which was recently re-discovered on the Antarctic seabed. NASA refers to these crew stays on ISS as “expeditions”. It would be nice if someone in NASA PAO synched up their commentary so as to remind the public about actual historic resonances with ships of exploration – especially as we prepare to return to the Moon – to explore. Just sayin’.

Keith’s note: NASA just gave SpaceX 5 more crew flights to the ISS for a total of 14 contracted flights. Boeing has yet to fly a crew – its first Starliner crew flight has been pushed back again until next year. Other than redundancy, does NASA really need Boeing’s capability at this point?

Keith Cowing · Interview With NASAWatch Editor Keith Cowing on BBC Live at Five

Better screengrab: Trump supporters in power boats & a sailboard with a big campaign banner within mere feet of the #DM2 spacecraft with an active propulsion system leaking highly poisonous fuel. Can't wait to see their cellphone videos and selfies. #idiots #MakeSpaceGreatAgain pic.twitter.com/gdN7awomBK — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) August 2, 2020 .@KeithCowing follows up, asking if they won't splashdown so close to shore. Bridenstine: "We have a number of different options […]

The right tool to go to the moon, op ed, Tony Antonelli (Lockheed Martin), Politico “Contrary to the iconic scene from “Apollo 13,” we don’t aspire to dumping a box of parts on a table and trying to make it work. Let’s take the Dragon. You could add more backup computers, strings of communications, the ability to fly for days after loss of air pressure, and the ability to navigate […]

Today’s successful splashdown of the @SpaceX Demo-1 #CrewDragon capsule after its mission to @Space_Station marked another milestone in a new era of human spaceflight. @Commercial_Crew is one step closer to launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. pic.twitter.com/9THTVlubiA — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) March 8, 2019

SpaceX Crew Dragon Arrives At The International Space Station “International Space Station’s Harmony module forward port via “soft capture” at 5:51 a.m. EST while the station was traveling more than 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean, just north of New Zealand.” Space Station Crew Opens Hatch to Crew Dragon After Docking “Aboard the space station, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Russian cosmonaut and […]

A SpaceX Delivery Capsule May Be Contaminating The ISS, Wired “Part of the problem here, though, is NASA’s reluctance to talk about both the problem and the plans to fix it. The presentation, shared during the Payload Operations Integration Working Group meeting back in April, was approved for unclassified and unlimited public release and placed on the NASA Technical Reports Server in early September. I asked for an interview about […]

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is using a powerful rocket technology. NASA advisers say it could put lives at risk, Washington Post “… But in a 2015 letter to NASA, Thomas Stafford, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and then chairman of the agency’s space-station advisory committee, wrote that “there is a unanimous, and strong, feeling by the committee that scheduling the crew to be on board the Dragon spacecraft prior to […]