Aviation

A Frontier flight made an emergency landing with such force that its tires blew. Also, flames.

After separating from the ISS a few hours ago, Starliner is making its uncrewed landing, which is scheduled to touch down in New Mexico just after midnight ET.

The troubled spacecraft successfully undocked from the ISS without issue just after 6PM ET, and now it is scheduled to land at 12:01AM ET on Saturday at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

Boeing’s first crewed Starliner launch got Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore to the International Space Station in June, but with issues including helium leaks, will the same vehicle still bring them home?

Will astronauts Barry ”Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams come home from the ISS on the Starliner, or will they wait to hitch a ride home from SpaceX next year without protective space suits?

In the meantime, NASA officials said on a media call that they will weigh the risks of bringing Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams home on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

The aviation startup said it would launch an “air mobility network” in Los Angeles to combat the city’s notorious congestion. Vertiports, where Archer’s Midnight eVTOL aircraft will takeoff and land, are being planned for LAX, Orange County, Santa Monica, Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach, Van Nuys, and the University of California. If the company can get the proper approvals from the FAA, service will launch in early 2026.

Days before Boeing’s deferred prosecution agreement over 737 Max crashes would’ve expired, a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight, and the case was reopened. Now, attorneys for family members of the crash victims have been told federal prosecutors will seek a guilty plea from Boeing to resolve a criminal fraud charge, which one lawyer called “another sweetheart deal.”

NASA has pushed back the capsule’s return to Earth from the ISS to examine helium leaks and a valve issue. The Starliner ran into multiple delays before finally launching earlier this month.

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, who’s been on the International Space Station since March, seems to enjoy sharing his camera settings. For the picture of the Boeing Starliner below, he followed up:

SpaceX isn’t the only one busy today, as the finally-launched Starliner is closing in on the International Space Station. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have already performed “about two hours of free-flight demonstrations,” and more are planned, despite additional helium leaks detected by flight controllers overnight.

NASA, Boeing, and the United Launch Alliance had hoped for a shorter delay, but NASA says the ULA is taking more time to troubleshoot an issue with ground launch systems that halted the mission less than four minutes from liftoff.

With just 3 minutes and 50 seconds to go, one of three redundant ground computers involved in the launch was slow to respond, triggering a hold and the call to abort liftoff, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said during a press conference today.

The recently passed bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration contains a whole section on “advanced air mobility,” which is an industry term for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. According to The Air Current, the bill contains provisions that would make it much easier for first generation eVTOL operators like Joby, Archer, Supernal and Beta — all of which have been spending crazy money on lobbying in Washington — to launch commercial airtaxi operations.

In 1973, scientists intercepted the leading edge of a total eclipse’s shadow in a Concorde jet over Mauritania and flew with it for 74 minutes straight to study the sun’s corona. I have two videos for you.