Reuters is reporting that Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which jointly operate United Launch Alliance (ULA), are in talks to sell their rocket business to Sierra Space, a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corp., an increasingly influential defense contractor that recently landed a $13 billion deal to build the federal government’s new Survivable Airborne Operations System based on five used Boeing 747-8s.

• READ MORE: NASA Sets Tentative End-of-Month Deadline on Starliner Decision

The talks about the rocket business are in their early stages, and ULA has previously tried to unload it without success.

The company competes with SpaceX to launch government payloads into orbit. Reuters said the company should bring in between $2 billion-$3 billion and could fit Sierra Nevada’s plan to bring its Dream Chaser spaceplane to market and service the space station it’s planning to build in partnership with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

• READ MORE: NASA Investigation Finds Boeing Hindering Americans’ Return to Moon

Meanwhile, NASA officials say they continue to consider options to return two test pilot astronauts to Earth after an extended stay, but it seems unlikely Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be going back on the Boeing Starliner crew capsule.

A decision on whether to use the problematic capsule must be made by the end of August.

• READ MORE: NASA: Starliner Astronauts May Not Return Until February

NASA officials told reporters last week that it’s considering a variety of alternative plans to get them home, including leaving them on the International Space Station for another six months as substitute members of a new four-member crew that will launch to the ISS for a six-month tour in September. Instead of bringing four astronauts, the SpaceX rocket would have two crew on board who would return with Williams and Wilmore after their tour is complete.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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On Wednesday morning, the autonomous, semireusable space capsule—intended for 10 service missions to the International Space Station (ISS) under a multibillion contract between the aerospace manufacturer and NASA—finally lifted off with humans for the first time.

The long-delayed mission, called the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT), will take NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the orbital laboratory, where they will conduct an array of tests and evaluations of the spacecraft, its systems, and equipment.

The CFT is expected to be Starliner’s final flight test, demonstrating its capabilities with astronauts on board before NASA moves to certify it for Commercial Crew rotation missions to the ISS. The first of these, Starliner-1, could take place as early as next year.

An initial CFT launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed, and the mission was postponed several times before finally taking flight. But Wilmore and Williams are now well on their way to the space station, where they are expected to dock Thursday at 12:15 p.m. EDT.

We Have Liftoff

Starliner lifted off from the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday at 10:52 a.m. EDT as teams had planned.

Carrying the capsule into orbit was United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket, which is making its 100th flight. Atlas V, when stacked together with Starliner, stands over 170 feet tall and generated some 1.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

The liftoff represented the first time humans have hitched a ride on either Starliner or Atlas V. Williams became the first woman to fly on the maiden voyage of a crewed spacecraft.

After achieving Max Q—the moment the rocket faces the greatest amount of pressure as it climbs through the atmosphere—Starliner successfully separated from Atlas V at suborbit, just under 15 minutes into the mission. From this point on, the astronauts will be on their own.

About half an hour into the mission, Starliner executed a successful insertion burn to place it in stable orbit, from which the capsule will embark on an approximately 24-hour journey to the ISS. The spacecraft will dock with the orbital laboratory’s Harmony module Thursday afternoon, and Williams and Wilmore will disembark to join the crew of NASA’s Expedition 71 for a weeklong stay.

Setting the Stage

Throughout the CFT, the astronauts will work to prepare Starliner for certification.

The performance of equipment such as suits and seats was assessed during prelaunch and ascent. As Starliner rendezvous with the space station, the crew will conduct further testing of life support equipment, manual and automated navigation systems, and thruster performance in the scenario of a manual abort. While capable of flying on its own, the capsule can be commanded manually, and crews have failsafes at their disposal at different points in the flight path.

After assessing Starliner’s autonomous docking capabilities and the opening and closing of its hatch, the astronauts will configure the spacecraft for its stay and move emergency equipment into the ISS. Once they are settled, teams will perform checks of displays, cargo systems, and the vehicle itself.

Williams and Wilmore will also try to prove that the capsule could serve as a “safe haven” in the event of depressurization, fire, or collision with debris impacting the orbital laboratory.

On their return trip, the astronauts will briefly test out Starliner’s manual piloting capabilities. As it approaches Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will slow from its orbital velocity of 17,500 mph and touch down in one of four locations in the Western U.S., using a combination of parachutes and airbags.

A Calculated Risk

If all goes according to plan, Starliner could launch on its first Commercial Crew rotation mission for NASA in the first half of next year. However, the space agency, Boeing, and ULA are taking a calculated risk with the mission.

A helium leak traced to one of the 28 reaction control system thrusters on Starliner’s service module—which helps maneuver the capsule while in orbit—is responsible for a few of the spacecraft’s recent setbacks. NASA describes the leak as small and stable.

But in a scenario Steve Stich, who manages the Commercial Crew program, described as “a pretty diabolical case, where you would lose two helium manifolds in two separate [thrusters]” that are next to one another, Starliner could be unable to perform a deorbit burn. That’s the maneuver that allows it to slow down from orbital speeds as it reenters the atmosphere.

NASA estimated the likelihood of this occurring at 0.77 percent. As a contingency, it and Boeing developed a modified deorbit burn procedure which they say has been tested in a simulator by Williams and Wilmore.

What It Means

There’s a lot riding on the Starliner CFT’s success.

For Boeing, which rakes in billions every quarter, the more important impact may be reputational rather than financial. The company has come under fire in recent months for its internal safety processes, and successfully flying two humans to the ISS and back could help ease the pressure.

For NASA, Starliner may be instrumental in achieving the agency’s goals.

To date, all eight Commercial Crew rotation missions have been flown by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which like Starliner is a reusable capsule for up to seven passengers. SpaceX signed its own multibillion-dollar contract with the space agency at the same time as Boeing and has since extended it multiple times, without failing to complete a mission.

But NASA wants an alternative to Dragon in the case of a contingency, such as the one that stranded astronaut Frank Rubio on the ISS for nearly a year—and helped him set a U.S. spaceflight record in the process. The space agency made sure to commemorate Rubio’s achievement, but it wants to avoid a similar situation recurring. By keeping two reusable spacecraft in its fleet, it could have one ready to retrieve a crew in case the other fails.

Should Starliner enter NASA’s Commercial Crew rotation, it will alternate six-month missions to the ISS with Dragon.

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The mission, which has faced a series of setbacks since an initial launch attempt was scrubbed on May 6, is now targeted for 10:52 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, with a backup launch window available Thursday.

The Starliner CFT is intended to be the spacecraft’s final test flight before NASA moves to certify it for service missions to the ISS, the first of which could take place next year. To date, all eight Commercial Crew rotation missions to the orbital laboratory have been flown by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. 

The company signed its own multibillion-dollar contract with the space agency at the same time as Boeing but has already cemented itself as an invaluable partner. The same cannot be said for the aerospace giant, which has flown Starliner to the ISS just once.

CFT launch attempts have been delayed or scrubbed due to a litany of issues. First, it was a faulty pressure regulation valve on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle, which will carry Starliner into orbit. Then, crews discovered a small helium leak on Starliner itself, involving one of the 28 reaction control system thrusters on its service module. These small engines use helium to make minor maneuvers and keep Starliner in orbit.

NASA and Boeing have since described the leak as stable but have opted not to repair it, which would require Starliner to be unstacked from Atlas V and could take months. However, in investigating the root cause of the leak, crews discovered what the space agency described as a “design vulnerability” in the capsule’s propulsion system.

In a scenario NASA estimates has a likelihood of about 0.77 percent, the original leak could combine with an adjacent leak to prevent Starliner from performing a deorbit burn. That’s the maneuver that returns a spacecraft to Earth’s atmosphere following its mission.

All of this work identifying and assessing risk pushed the CFT back to Saturday. But yet another problem forced a cancellation of the launch just a few minutes before takeoff—and made a second go-around on Sunday infeasible.

According to the Starliner team, the issue is again on ULA’s side of things.

During the countdown, ground support equipment on the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida experienced issues, which crews traced to a power supply unit on one of three chassis on Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage. The power supply unit indirectly powers Centaur’s topping valves during the launch sequence, and all three chassis must be running in order for the countdown to be completed.

According to Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, the chassis with the faulty power unit was quickly replaced. The new equipment has been retested and was functioning normally as of Sunday. NASA and Boeing added that they did not observe any physical damage to Starliner or Atlas V, and crews will perform a “full failure analysis” to determine what went wrong.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, Starliner’s first human passengers, remain in quarantine at Kennedy Space Center. If all goes according to plan, Wilmore and Williams will dock with the ISS later this week. There, they will spend about one week performing tests of Starliner’s systems as NASA prepares for the program’s next step: certification.

After that, Starliner would begin alternating six-month Commercial Crew rotation missions with SpaceX’s Dragon.

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NASA and Boeing on Wednesday announced that the Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT), intended to be the spacecraft’s final dress rehearsal before the agency certifies it for service missions, is a “go” to proceed for 12:25 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 1.

However, Starliner engineers during a press conference last week said that a design flaw with the spacecraft’s propulsion system gives the capsule a 0.77 percent chance of being unable to perform a deorbit burn after it returns from the ISS. A deorbit burn, in which the vehicle reverses direction and fires its orbital maneuvering engines to slow itself, is used to maneuver a spacecraft back into Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA, Boeing, and launch provider United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are taking a calculated risk with the launch attempt following years of delays to the Starliner program. The setbacks have resulted from a combination of issues involving the spacecraft’s software, propulsion system, and parachutes.

Boeing and rival SpaceX each have multibillion-dollar contracts with the space agency to provide crew rotation services. But all eight missions to the ISS to date have been flown using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which like Starliner is a reusable capsule designed to accommodate up to seven passengers.

Starliner in 2019 and 2022 attempted two uncrewed test flights to the ISS, the first aborted and the second successful.

The capsule’s first crewed mission has been delayed a number of times since an initial launch attempt scheduled for May 6 was scrubbed due to an issue with ULA’s Atlas V launch vehicle. Following that setback, engineers discovered a small helium leak on the Starliner capsule itself, tracing it to one of 28 reaction control system thrusters on the spacecraft’s service module.

“This is a high-pressure system, and helium is a very small, tiny molecule, and it tends to leak,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, last week. “This particular leak, I don’t think it implicates the design of the seal or the flange. It’s just maybe a defective part.”

Rather than replace the faulty valve, which would involve removing Starliner from the Atlas V rocket and could take several months, crews decided to try and better understand the flaw.

According to Stich, Starliner could actually weather a complete rupture in the valve’s seal, even if additional helium leaks spring up elsewhere.

“We could handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times,” he said.

The leak is now described as stable, and Stich noted that SpaceX’s Dragon has also encountered leaks, which did not impact operations. But in the course of investigating the issue, teams uncovered yet another problem.

“We found a design vulnerability…in the [propulsion] system as we analyzed this particular helium leak, where for certain failure cases that are very remote, we didn’t have the capability to execute the deorbit burn with redundancy,” said Stich.

In what Stich described as “a pretty diabolical case where you would lose two helium manifolds in two separate doghouses, and then they have to be next to each other”—referring to the aforementioned 0.77 percent figure—Starliner could be unable to perform a deorbit burn. Engineers said they have come up with a contingency plan that has already been tested by NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in a Starliner simulator.

“We have multiple redundancies in our system,” Mark Nappi, vice president of Boeing and program manager for Starliner, said last week. “We have a case here that’s extremely remote that we missed. And if there are more out there, they’re going to be in that same category of extremely remote.”

Though the issue hasn’t entirely gone away, Starliner teams appear committed to a launch on Saturday.

NASA, Boeing, and ULA on Wednesday completed a Delta-Agency Flight Test Readiness Review, determining that all Starliner systems, facilities, and teams are ready for launch. On Thursday, crews rolled Atlas V and Starliner back to the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, further signaling their intent to move forward with the attempt.

NASA will provide live coverage of the mission on its website, app, and YouTube channel. If all goes according to plan, Starliner, carrying Wilmore and Williams, will dock to the ISS’s Harmony module Sunday afternoon. The astronauts would then spend about one week on the orbital laboratory, where they will test the capsule’s systems in order to advance the certification process.

NASA hopes to get Starliner into its Commercial Crew rotation with the Starliner-1 service mission, scheduled for no earlier than 2025. After that, it would alternate six-month missions to the ISS with SpaceX’s Dragon.

U.S. Space Force meteorologists on Friday said there is a 90 percent chance that weather conditions will meet the criteria for a safe launch. Should the attempt be scrubbed again, backup launch windows are scheduled for Sunday, June 2, Wednesday, June 5, and Thursday, June 6.

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After postponing the previously announced May 25 launch attempt of the Starliner CFT on Tuesday, NASA on Wednesday said that it, Boeing, and launch provider United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are targeting no earlier than Saturday, June 1, at 12:25 p.m. EDT for the next attempt. Additional launch windows include Sunday, June 2, Wednesday, June 5, and Thursday, June 6.

The postponement is the latest in a string of delays that have impacted the mission—and plagued the Starliner program more broadly—for years. An initial launch attempt was scrubbed hours before takeoff on May 6.

The setback follows the discovery of what NASA and Boeing described as a small helium leak on Starliner’s service module, which is designed to power and maneuver the autonomous spacecraft on its journey to the ISS.

According to NASA, Starliner teams have been meeting extensively to identify a new launch date, but further work remains. The agency said the current leak remains stable but that crews are now conducting follow-on performance and propulsion system assessments “to understand potential helium system impacts on some Starliner return scenarios.”

NASA will also perform a Flight Test Readiness Review to recap the work that has been done since May 6 and explain the rationale for attempting the next launch. A date for that review has not been identified but will be announced once selected, it said.

“It has been important that we take our time to understand all the complexities of each issue, including the redundant capabilities of the Starliner propulsion system and any implications to our Interim Human Rating Certification,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. “We will launch [astronauts] Butch [Wilmore] and Suni [Williams] on this test mission after the entire community has reviewed the teams’ progress and flight rationale at the upcoming Delta Agency Flight Test Readiness Review.”

NASA views Starliner as an alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for missions to low-Earth orbit. Dragon has flown each of the space agency’s eight Commercial Crew rotation missions, ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS, and will facilitate the upcoming Crew-9 mission scheduled for August.

But NASA wants to keep two reusable spacecraft in its fleet in case of a contingency, such as the incident that stranded astronaut Frank Rubio on the orbital laboratory for six months.

Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 each signed multibillion-dollar contracts with the agency to secure test flights and several Commercial Crew missions for their respective vessels. SpaceX has since expanded its arrangement multiple times, while Starliner—which is under contract for six flights—has languished in the development phase.

The Starliner CFT is intended to be the spacecraft’s final test flight before NASA certifies it for Commercial Crew rotation flights. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft’s first commercial mission to the ISS, Starliner-1, could take place next year. But the delays continue to pile up.

The mission was initially scrubbed due to an oscillating pressure regulation valve on ULA’s Atlas V rocket, which will send Starliner into orbit. The partners set a new target launch date of May 10, later revising it to May 17 to give crews additional time to resolve the issue.

Then, last week, teams discovered a new problem—this time involving a helium leak on one of the Starliner capsule’s 28 reaction control system thrusters. Helium allows the thrusters to fire and make minor maneuvers in orbit. As a result, the launch was pushed to no earlier than Tuesday, a timeline that was then revised yet again to Saturday.

With Wednesday’s announcement, the partners are now nearly one month behind schedule, placing the Starliner team in a bind. On one hand, the safety of the astronauts must be prioritized. But on the other, there is some pressure to launch sooner rather than later.

As Ars Technica’s Stephen Clark notes, the ISS docking schedule gets a bit crowded after July, so there is some pressure for Starliner teams to launch sooner rather than later. In addition, Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida—from where Starliner will launch—is used by ULA for other Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur launches.

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The post NASA, Boeing Forgo Starliner Crewed Flight Test Until June Earliest appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The problem with the relief valve on the upper stage of the Atlas rocket was detected about two hours before the scheduled 10:34 p.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral.

“In a situation like this, if we see any data signature is not something that we have seen before, then we are just simply not willing to take any chances with what is our most precious payload,” United Launch Alliance spokesman Dillon Rice told reporters.

ULA is providing the rocket to boost the capsule into orbit for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS).

* READ MORE: What to Know About Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Test Flight 

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had just strapped in when the decision to scrub was made. It’s not known how long it will take to fix the valve.

It’s the latest in a series of issues encountered getting the Starliner to space, although this is the first issue with the launch system. The first uncrewed test launch of the capsule in 2019 failed to get to the right orbit for the ISS. The second test reached the space station, but after it returned problems were found with the parachutes and flammable tape was discovered in the electrical system.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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Tuesday marked the swan song for Delta IV Heavy, a heavy-lift launcher headed for retirement. The spacecraft was built by United Launch Alliance (ULA)—a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing—and is considered one of the most prolific in U.S. history.

Delta IV Heavy, standing 235 feet tall, is part of ULA’s Delta family of rockets, which along with its Atlas family is used primarily by the U.S. government. Tuesday’s launch was conducted in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which is responsible for designing, building, launching and maintaining U.S. intelligence satellites.

The mission, NROL-70, is ULA’s 35th for the NRO and 99th for U.S. national security. Its payload is classified.

NROL-70 also represented the 389th Delta launch since 1960 and the 294th to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It was ULA’s 45th and final launch of a Delta IV rocket and its 16th in the Heavy configuration.

ULA is in the process of transitioning launches from Cape Canaveral and Vandenburg Space Force Base in California to its Vulcan Centaur, the successor to Delta and eventually Atlas. Vulcan completed its maiden voyage in January, carrying a Peregrine lunar lander for commercial customer Astrobotic.

On Tuesday morning, teams at Cape Canaveral reported 90 percent favorable conditions for the launch, which was originally scheduled for March 28. Crews promptly began filling the rocket’s eight cryogenic tanks with 470,000 gallons of supercooled liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

The tanks power the spacecraft’s three common core boosters, which fuel three RS-68A engines each producing 700,000 pounds of thrust at sea level. The RS-68A is the largest hydrogen-burning engine in existence, per ULA.

The tanks also fuel Delta IV Heavy’s Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), which is powered by a single RL10C-2-1 engine producing nearly 25,000 pounds of thrust. The DCSS avionics system provides guidance and flight control for the booster.

At 12:24 p.m. EST, ULA received confirmation that weather conditions were “green.” Minutes later, NRO mission director Colonel Eric Zarybnisky gave the final “go” for launch.

ULA began pressurizing the rocket’s tanks and started the launcher sequence, which independently verifies systems are functioning during the remainder of the countdown. Those systems include the hydrogen burnoff igniters beneath the engine, which play a critical role during launch.

Liftoff took place at 12:53 p.m., exactly as planned, enshrouding the launch pad in a ball of fire. That was also planned—Delta IV uses hydrogen gas to cool the rocket down before takeoff, which ignites and burns off during launch. A staggered engine ignition mitigates this process and reduces the burnoff.

After clearing the launch tower for the final time, the rocket could be seen across most of the Florida peninsula, barring cloud cover. About 1 minute and 30 seconds into the flight, Delta IV Heavy broke the sound barrier. One minute after that, it weighed just half what it did at takeoff due to the amount of fuel it must consume.

By the time the booster core and DCSS separated about six minutes into the mission, Delta IV Heavy was traveling 15 times the speed of sound. A few seconds later, the rocket reached space, and ULA ended its coverage.

“For the final time, this is Delta Launch Control, signing off,” ULA said.

At the time of its retirement, Delta IV Heavy is the third-highest capacity launch vehicle in operation, after NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.

Delta rockets have ferried NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers and other missions to Mars, launched probes that “touched the sun,” and even carried out the first orbital test flight of NASA’s Orion capsule. Orion will ferry astronauts around the moon and back during NASA’s Artemis II mission in 2025.

Delta’s successor, Vulcan, is less expensive than both it and Atlas V, the most recent addition to the Atlas family. It is designed primarily for the National Security Space Launch program. But ULA is also collaborating Vulcan launches with Amazon’s Project Kuiper and other commercial customers.

ULA’s new flagship spacecraft will need to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, which unlike Vulcan are reusable. The company also has 17 remaining launches for Atlas V, the country’s longest-serving active rocket.

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United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket launched Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander on January 8 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Hours into the mission, however, a “propulsion anomaly” was reported that cut the flight short of its original target to make a lunar landing attempt on February 23.

“After analysis and recommendations from NASA and the space community, Astrobotic determined the best option for minimizing risk and ensuring responsible disposal of the spacecraft would be to maintain Peregrine’s trajectory toward Earth, where it burned up upon reentry,” NASA said Friday.

The spacecraft made a controlled reentry over the South Pacific 10 days and 13 hours after it launched.

• READ MORE: ‘Propulsion Anomaly’ Reported After Launch of First U.S. Commercial Lunar Lander

“Peregrine Mission One has concluded,” Astrobotic said Friday  in a message on X, formerly Twitter. “We look to the future and our next mission to the moon, Griffin Mission One. All of the hard-earned experience from the past 10 days in space along with the preceding years of designing, building and testing Peregrine will directly inform Griffin and our future missions.”

Despite the failure to land on the moon as planned, NASA said four out of five of its payloads on Peregrine were able to power on in flight and collect data. Those experiments included its Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS), Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS), Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), and Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS). Its fifth experiment, a laser retroreflector array, is a passive instrument and would have only been able to operate on the lunar surface.

• READ MORE: First U.S. Moonshot in Decades Will Fall Short—What It Means 

The Peregrine mission was an opportunity to set benchmarks and test instruments in space, said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“The data collected in flight sets the stage for understanding how some of our instruments may behave in the harsh environment of space when some of the duplicates fly on future CLPS flights,” Fox said.

The post First Commercial Lunar Delivery Mission Ends Before Landing appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Hours into the mission, however, a “propulsion anomaly” potentially threatened the success of the lander reaching the moon’s surface as planned.

United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket launched Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander at 2:18 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

• READ MORE: What Did the U.S. Just Put in Orbit?

“The first CLPS launch has sent payloads on their way to the moon—a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “These high-risk missions will not only conduct new science at the moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much science to learn through CLPS missions that will help us better understand the evolution of our solar system and shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.”  

The first U.S. commercial robotic launch to the Moon successfully lifted off Jan. 8 on the first flight of @ULALaunch’s #VulcanRocket. @Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission 1 lander is expected to reach the lunar surface in February: https://t.co/csvx73ZqgP pic.twitter.com/N7Mxiqi8GC

— NASA (@NASA) January 8, 2024

Around 50 minutes after launch, the Peregrine lander separated from Vulcan around 500 kilometers (310 miles) above Earth and successfully powered on. 

“After successfully separating from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander began receiving telemetry via the NASA Deep Space Network,”Astrobotic said in a mission update Monday on X, formerly Twitter. “Astrobotic-built avionics systems, including the primary command and data handling unit, as well as the thermal, propulsion, and power controllers, all powered on and performed as expected. After successful propulsion systems activation, Peregrine entered a safe operational state.

“Unfortunately, an anomaly then occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation,” the post said.

In a second mission update, the company said it believed “that the likely cause of the unstable sun-pointing is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon. As the team fights to troubleshoot the issue, the spacecraft battery is reaching operationally low levels.”

As Peregrine headed toward a period of known communication outage, the Astrobotic team developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient its solar panels toward the sun, it said. By midday, Astrobotic reported that it had successfully regained communications with Peregrine, and that the improvised maneuver had been successful in reorienting its solar array towards the Sun. 

“We are now charging the battery,” it said in the third mission update on X. “The Mission Anomaly Board continues to evaluate the data we’re receiving and is assessing the status of what we believe to be the root of the anomaly: a failure within the propulsion system.”

Vulcan’s Inaugural Launch

The launch—the first certification flight (Cert-1) for ULA’s next generation Vulcan rocket— serves as the first of two flights required for U.S. Space Force certification.

“The second certification mission (Cert-2) is planned to launch in the coming months, followed by a summer launch of the first Vulcan mission to support national security space,” ULA said.

Said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO, in a statement: “Vulcan’s inaugural launch ushers in a new, innovative capability to meet the ever-growing requirements of space launch.As we build on today’s successful launch, the team will continue to work towards our future biweekly launch rate to meet our customers’ manifest requirements, while continuing to develop future Vulcan upgrades including SMART reuse plans for downrange, non-propulsive recovery of Vulcan engines.”

In addition to Astrobotic’s first Peregrine Lunar Lander payload, the Cert-1 mission also included the Celestis Memorial Spaceflights deep space Voyager mission, the Enterprise Flight. Peregrine is carrying 20 payloads from 16 commercial customers representing seven countries.

• READ MORE: Remains of Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols To Launch into Space

“The payloads come from space agencies, universities, companies, and individuals across the globe,” Astrobotic said. “This includes the first lunar surface payloads from the Mexican and German space agencies, and the first lunar payloads from the countries of the United Kingdom, Hungary, and Seychelles. One of the payloads, DHL MoonBox, contains mementos and messages from over 100,000 individuals around the world.”

When Peregrine attempts to land on the moon on February 23, it will be the first U.S. lander to do so in more than 50 years.

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Houston, Texas-based Celestis Memorial Spaceflights announced Thursday it will be sending a “symbolic portion” of the actress’s cremated remains to space aboard a rocket, along with those of other Star Trek cast members.

Nichols, remembered by millions for her role as Lt. Nyota Uhura, the communications officer aboard starship USS Enterprise, died this past July 30, at age 89. She is survived by her son, Kyle Johnson.

The rocket carrying Nichols’ ashes will also contain DNA from Kyle, allowing mother and son to symbolically “fly together on a forever mission known as Enterprise Flight,” Celestis Memorial Spaceflights spokesperson Pazia Schonfeld told FLYING.

• READ MORE: The Aviation Roots of Star Trek

A Rocket Named Vulcan

The Enterprise Flight will be operated in conjunction with United Launch Alliance, according to Celestis. The rocket, dubbed Vulcan, is expected to travel between 150 million to 300 million kilometers into deep space.  

The launch will include more than 200 flight capsules containing cremated remains, messages of greetings, and DNA samples from clients worldwide on an endless journey in interplanetary space, Celestis said in a release. First, Vulcan will be tasked with putting Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander on a trajectory for its rendezvous with the moon. Next, the “Centaur rocket’s upper stage will continue into deep space, entering an orbit around the sun, becoming humanity’s furthermost reaching outpost, which will then be renamed the Enterprise Station,” the company news release said.

“The capsules that carry the cremated remains are made from aircraft-grade aluminum. They are round and range from 1/4 inch to 1 inch,” Colby Youngblood, president of Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, told FLYING on Friday. “The clients who wish to send cremains are sent a flight kit that allows them to send a few grams of the ashes. For DNA submissions we work with a company out of Canada that takes a cheek swab that turns it into powder.”

According to a Celestis website, memorial spaceflight experiences run from $2,495 for Earth Rise, which consists of a launch to space and return to Earth, to $12,500, for either launch to deep space or to the moon.

• READ MORE: Shatner Goes to Space for Real  

Star Trek Cast Flies Free

However, Youngblood, a science fiction fan, noted, “If you are a member of the original ‘Star Trek’ cast, the flight is gratis,” saying the Enterprise Memorial Flight is the result of a promise Charles M. Chafer, co-founder and CEO of Celestis made to the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry—the late Majel Roddenberry—in 1997 during the company’s inaugural flight.

“Gene Roddenberry’s cremains were on board, and Majel was there during the launch. She turned to Charlie and says, ‘Promise me that when it is my time you will fly me with Gene into deep space.’ Charlie promised he would.” Youngblood said.

Majel Roddenberry appeared in several roles in the Star Trek franchise, first as the character No. 1—the first officer aboard the Enterprise in the pilot episode—then later as Nurse Christine Chapel in the original series, followed by Lxwana Troi in Star Trek the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. She also provided the voice for the computer aboard the starships. 

Youngblood notes that the DNA of son Rod Roddenberry will also be aboard, as will the cremains of actor James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek franchise. “Scotty,” as he was known, had keen problem-solving abilities and was the only crew member in a red shirt to routinely survive away missions.

• READ MORE: Shatner’s Space Flight Turned into a Documentary

A Pleasant Surprise

Johnson said he had heard of Celestis and the memorial space flights, and was pleasantly surprised when the company reached out to him a few days after his mother passed with the offer of a gratis flight.

“It was very uplifting for me personally, as her passing was rather sudden, and one cannot prepare for these things,” he said. “They offered this marvelous invitation to join this flight with Gene and Majel and Jimmy Doohan and Douglas Trumball who did the special effects for the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, he explained. “It was a wonderful, generous offer that couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Johnson, who was a teenager when his mother landed the role on Star Trek, noted that, at the time, it was an acting job, and that no one had any idea the television series would become the cultural influence that it did. 

“It wasn’t larger than life then,” he explains. “There was ‘Star Trek’ the original series and then afterward came the ‘Star Trek’ phenomenon.”

Johnson recalls that Roddenberry, who in the early 1960s was an up-and-coming television producer and writer, had worked with his mother on The Lieutenant, a television show which ran on NBC from 1963-1964.

“He created the role of Uhura on ‘Star Trek’ with her in mind,” he said. “My mother shared some of what she experienced on ‘Star Trek’ with me. She said Gene was able to get creative control of the series and the network later came to regret it because of the way Gene chose to utilize that control.”

For example, Roddenberry wanted his fictional creation of Star Fleet to represent cultural diversity—the inclusion of a Black communications officer as a main character was part of that. At the time, most Black actors were relegated to background roles in television programs, often playing servants. 

Over the years, Nichols told numerous interviewers that she was unaware, at first, of the impact her role was having on society. She described how she had become dissatisfied after the first season, saying some of the mail she received at the studio was hostile and racist. She wanted to resign, but a discussion with civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King at an NAACP fundraiser changed her mind. King, who described himself as her biggest fan, persuaded Nichols to remain with the show by pointing out how the role she played was non-traditional, non-stereotypical, and ground-breaking, changing the societal perception of the roles of Black people.

The Kiss

“Plato’s Children” is still regarded as a ground-breaking and controversial Star Trek episode because of a scene where series star Capt. James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, is forced to kiss Lt. Uhura for the amusement of the Platonians, a sadistic race with telekinetic powers. The characters physically try to avoid the kiss, then are forced into a clinch. The episode aired in 1968 and NBC was worried the episode would generate a hostile backlash. 

“It did cause a stir,” Johnson remembers.

Nichols told interviewers she got a lot of fan mail about that particular episode from girls who wanted to know what it was like to kiss Capt. Kirk.

Johnson noted that when the series went off the air and into syndication, there was some downtime between jobs and that led Nichols to look for alternative revenue streams.

“When you become an actor you have to commit to some lean times between jobs,” he said. “That’s when she started her company with some fellow actresses and colleagues. She didn’t have a name for it yet and we were discussing it, brainstorming for a name. Mom came to me and I popped out ‘Women in Motion’ and she said, ‘Yes! That’s it!’ and she jumped into the deep end with both feet.”

Nichols Recruits for NASA

In 1976, America developed the space shuttle, the first reusable spacecraft. When NASA looked for names for the proof-of-concept ship, a massive letter-writing campaign persuaded the space agency to name the shuttle Enterprise after the fictional starship. Nichols and several other members of the cast and Roddenberry were invited as special guests to see the debut of the shuttle in 1976. Nichols, through Women in Motion, would go on to help NASA recruit diverse candidates—namely women and minorities for the shuttle program. 

“Nichelle Nichols was a trailblazing actress, advocate, and dear friend to NASA. At a time when Black women were seldom seen on screen, Nichelle’s portrayal as Nyota Uhura on ‘Star Trek’ held a mirror up to America that strengthened civil rights. Nichelle’s advocacy transcended television and transformed NASA,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “After Apollo 11, Nichelle made it her mission to inspire women and people of color to join this agency, change the face of STEM, and explore the cosmos. Nichelle’s mission is NASA’s mission. Today, as we work to send the first woman and first person of color to the moon under Artemis, NASA is guided by the legacy of Nichelle Nichols.”

Fans Encouraged To Send Tributes

Fans of Nichols are encouraged to participate in Enterprise Flight, said Youngblood.

“They can go to Enterprise-flight.com and leave a tribute message to Nichelle, and we will fly your message into space. We wanted fans to be able to participate in this. We know what she meant to everyone so we think that’s important.”

“We are truly honored to add a legendary actress, activist, and educator to the Enterprise Flight manifest,” said Chafer. “Now our Enterprise Flight will have on board the person who most completely embodied the vision of ‘Star Trek’ as a diverse, inclusive, and exploring universe.”

The Enterprise Memorial Flight is slated to launch in December. 

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