Hey and welcome again to TechCrunch House. Mark your calendars, everybody: Boeing and NASA are planning to conduct the primary crewed Starliner mission as quickly as Might 1.
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SpaceX is within the remaining levels of certifying a second pad for astronaut launches, which ought to ease launch web site congestion and assist the corporate scale the variety of people it sends to house. As a preliminary step, the corporate used that second pad to launch an uncrewed Dragon capsule to the Worldwide House Station. Subsequent step: crew.
Rocket Lab accomplished its fourth launch from Virginia final Thursday, with the Electron rocket carrying a categorised payload for the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace. That is the fifth and remaining mission Rocket Lab has carried out for NRO below a contract the corporate was awarded again in 2020. Watch the launch replay right here.
What we’re studying
I’ve at all times privately questioned about how the rise of NewSpace firms has impacted hiring and retention at locations like NASA — so I used to be actually excited to see this story from Bloomberg wanting into precisely that query. The state of affairs is a bit more advanced than it might sound at first look.
This week in house historical past
On March 30, 1982, the house shuttle Columbia touched down on the White Sands Missile Vary in New Mexico. The shuttle was carrying astronauts Jack R. Lousma and C. Gordon Fullerton, who had been returning residence after a profitable eight-day mission.