Massimo Luciani

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft docked with the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft docked with the International Space Station’s Harmony module carrying out the first part of its Boe-OFT 2 (Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2) or OFT-2 mission which began with the launch just over 24 hours earlier. The hatch is scheduled to open in the American morning and all work on the Starliner will be completed rather quickly, as it could depart already on May 25.

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft blasting off atop a ULA Atlas V rocket in its Boe-OFT 2 mission (Photo Boeing/John Proferes)

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A few hours ago, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft blasted off atop a ULA Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on the Boe-OFT 2 (Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2) mission. After about fifteen minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and about half an hour after launch it carried out the maneuvers to enter orbit and begin the pursuit of the International Space Station.

The area around Sagittarius A* (Image courtesy EHT Collaboration)

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In various press conferences, representatives of the institutions collaborating in the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project announced that they obtained the first image of the area around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The central shadow, which constitutes the black hole, is surrounded by a sort of ring formed by gas and dust that glow because they were heated by Sagittarius A*. It took the combination of 8 radio telescopes to obtain proof of the existence of this supermassive black hole, taken for granted by the vast majority of scientists but still denied by some.

The Tianzhou 4 cargo spacecraft blastinf off (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Tian Dingyu)

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It was morning in Beijing when the Chinese Tianzhou 4 cargo spacecraft reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module. It was launched about seven hours earlier on a Long March-7 Y5 rocket from the Wenchang base. This is the third space freighter launched to the new Chinese space station and carries propellant along with various types of supplies for the taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, who will arrive in June.

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft splashing down to conclude its Crew-3 mission (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft concluded its Crew-3, or SpaceX Crew-3, mission on behalf of NASA by splashing down without problems. On board were astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer, who reached the International Space Station on November 11, 2021, and were part of Expedition 66 and 67. The four completed the second regular manned mission of SpaceX in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Tampa, Florida. The Crew Dragon departed the Station almost exactly one day ago.