Space-X

2026 has been a busy year for NASA. Four astronauts flew to the moon for the first trip by human beings there since Apollo 17 in 1972 The flight of Artemis two also highlights Alabama's role in the US space program. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville designed, built, tested, and manages the big Space Launch System rocket that sends Artemis missions to Earth orbit. Huntsville has its claim to fame when it comes to NASA, but Opelika does too. One of its favorite sons is retired astronaut Jim Voss. He flew four times on the space shuttle and served on the second full-time crew aboard the International Space Station, a conversation that's out of this world, is next on APR Notebook.

Astronaut Randy Bresnik flew aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 2009. He later worked aboard the International Space Station. NASA named him Commander, and three other men to be on the crew, of Artemis-3. The astronauts will launch aboard an Alabama built Space Launch System rocket to test one or both of lunar landers NASA may use for the first mission to put people on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

NASA's long-awaited moonshot with astronauts is off until at least March because of hydrogen fuel leaks that marred the dress rehearsal of its giant new rocket, designed, built, and managed in Alabama. It's the same problem that delayed the Space Launch System rocket's debut three years ago.

This week marks forty years since seven astronauts were killed in the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986. Families of the astronauts lost aboard Challenger gathered back at the launch site last week to mark that tragic day 40 years ago. All seven on board were killed when Challenger broke apart following liftoff on January 28, 1986. The Rogers Commission investigation into Challenger disaster assigned part of the blame on a manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Billionaire Elon Musk said, in response to Trump threatening to cancel his company’s government contracts, he will immediately begin decommissioning the SpaceX Dragon. The rocket that brought two stranded NASA astronauts back to earth is also the only U.S. rocket that can carry crews to and from the International Space Station. Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages science on the outpost.

NASA’s decision to land two astronauts aboard a SpaceX capsule, and not the Starliner craft they used to go to orbit, is considered a blow to Boeing. Despite all the controversy surrounding NASA’s new spacecraft, the Alabama built rocket that carried the Starliner to space did that job.

NASA says the two astronaut test pilots who flew to orbit aboard the new Starliner, which was boosted by an Alabama built rocket, will not return to Earth aboard the new spacecraft.

The FAA has reportedly grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket after a launch left a series of internet satellites in the wrong orbit. This may have implications for Boeing’s problematic Starliner and the Alabama built Atlas Five rocket that boosted the new space capsule to orbit

An Atlas-V rocket, built at the United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur, is on the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Its job is to carry two astronauts aboard the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft to orbit. A successful mission will add astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore to an elite group of people to have flown on three types of space vehicles.

The third fully commercial crew of astronauts is moving aboard NASA’s International Space Station for a fourteen day stay. APR News was invited to take part in the “live” coverage of the launch of the Axiom-3 mission on CBS-TV News in New York City.