Boeing Starliner astronauts: Do they just live up there now?

I had every intention of sending out another in-depth newsletter this week; after all, there’s no dearth of topics to choose from when it comes to space. But instead, given that it’s the holidays, and that my house isn’t exempt from the absolute chaos that comes with this season, I thought instead I’d bring you some follow-ups to stories I’ve done and brief updates on what’s going on in the space world.

Boeing Starliner astronauts’ ISS stay extended

If you have followed my Boeing Starliner coverage, you know exactly what I was thinking when I saw this. Crew-10 will head to the ISS on a SpaceX Crew Dragon (because what else is there at this point) in late March. That launch was previously targeted for February.

I’ve said again and again that delays happen. This is totally normal. It’s because they need some extra time to process the Crew Dragon that these astronauts will fly on, which won’t arrive at the Cape until early January. It wouldn’t even be news except…well, NASA likes to do a handover between ISS crews. This means that Crew-9 can’t depart until Crew-10 has arrived. NASA looked at a lot of different scenarios (because believe it or not, they do take extending Butch and Suni’s stay even further seriously) but in the end, the best decision in their view was to just keep Crew-9 up there a little longer.

If you’re keeping count, Butch and Suni launched June 6 on what was supposed to be a minimum of an eight day mission. It’s looking like that will now be an almost 10-month mission.

NASA’s yule log

Yes, you read that right. If you watch my vertical videos, you may have seen this one already, but NASA has an amazing yule log video featuring the SLS rocket framed by a picturesque fireplace. There’s even the sound of roaring rockets in the background. It’s my favorite thing this holiday season.

In the fireplace, you can see SLS's four RS-25 engines. These are Space Shuttle engines, previously known as the Space Shuttle Main Engines. Each Shuttle was equipped with three of these, and they were removed and updated for use on SLS. All four of Artemis I's RS-25 engines were previously used by Space Shuttles.

Flanking the RS-25 engines, you can see the flames of two solid rocket boosters. On the rocket, these stand 17 stories tall and they provide more than 75 percent of SLS's thrust at launch.

Voyager 1 and 2: The power situation

In case you missed it, Voyager 1 is back in full contact with Earth. A few weeks ago, I reported that the aging spacecraft was using its S-band transmitter, which hadn’t been turned on since 1981. The good news was that it worked. The bad news was that if the Voyager 1 team couldn’t figure out what had happened and get Voyager 1 to switch back to its X-band transmitter, the mission would effectively be over.

Well, the team was able to switch Voyager 1 back. Basically, there are models of how much power the spacecraft is using (and has available to use) at any different time. But according to a spokesperson from NASA, we’re talking about fractions of a watt here. The team thought they had enough power to flip on a heater, but they didn’t. It’s an indicator that our estimates of Voyager 1’s available power may no longer be accurate. This is also why NASA had to turn off one of Voyager 2’s science instruments in October.

The plasma science instrument, which was critical to determining the spacecraft had left our heliosphere, measured the amount of plasma, or charged particles, and the direction they were flowing. This means that there are only four operational science instruments on Voyager 2.

Engineers had tried hard to avoid this step as long as possible. Back in April 2023, engineers at NASA’s JPL made the decision to use a reservoir of backup power for the spacecraft in hopes of delaying another instrument shutoff until 2026 or later. In this case, using the extra power didn’t buy Voyager 2 as much time as engineers had hoped.

Starship’s next test flight may be January 7

SpaceX is gearing up for the next test flight of Starship, and an internal NASA email may have given us the launch date: January 7. According to an email obtained by The Launch Pad Network, NASA is requesting permission for multiple Gulf Stream jet flights in order to observe the launch.

Who knows if this is accurate, and launch dates can always slip. But there’s no reason to think this isn’t real, so for now, I have January 7 blocked off on my calendar. There’s going to be no fight with the FAA this time; the organization has already issued a launch license for the flight.

Axiom’s space station might be up and running soon

At the request of NASA, Axiom Space has shifted its space station plans in order to get the station up and running sooner than expected. This comes as NASA is trying to solidify its deorbit plans and ensure that there’s an operational private space station in low Earth orbit they can pass the torch to.

The plan tweaks will involve sending up a power module to dock with the ISS in 2027. This will detach nine months later to dock with Axiom’s habitat module. This means that Axiom will have a two-module space station up and running in 2028, versus the original plan of detaching from the ISS with four modules in 2030.

Will this work? Will this be ready on time? Who knows. The entire commercial space station endeavor has been plagued by delays and cancellations, but it’s a good plan. Let’s just see if they can stick to it.

Russia will stay on the ISS through 2030

In other ISS news, it looks as though Russia might be committed to the ISS through 2030? I flagged this as a problem for NASA’s ISS deorbit plans: At the time they were crafting them, Russia was only publicly committed to the ISS through 2028.

The head of Russia’s space agency Yuri Borisov has now stated publicly that Russia will stay on the ISS and cooperate with NASA’s deorbit plans for the aging Space Station. (This was first reported by Ars Technica.) According to the article, the official documents haven’t been signed. The timing of this makes you wonder how much cooperating with the incoming administration led to the decision.

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