Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA says the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft could launch to the International Space Station as soon as May 1. The capsule will sit on top of an Atlas-5 rocket, built at the United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur. This will be the first time astronauts have been carried to orbit aboard an Atlas-5.

A gathering in Huntsville next week will try to separate the truth from the hype when it comes to artificial intelligence. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center is hosting a symposium called “How to Make A.I. Work for You.”

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.

NASA is looking back on a bit of space history today while a University of Alabama astronaut is focusing on the future. It was on this date back in 1972 when the crew of Apollo 17 returned to Earth. That was NASA’s last manned lunar mission. Astronaut, and UA grad, Bob Hines is supporting the flight of Artemis Two, which will soon send people back to the moon.

Today marks a historic anniversary for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. It was on this date forty years ago that the European Spacelab module blasted off for the first time aboard the Space Shuttle. Marshall managed the twenty foot long science compartment which paved the way for the work done the International Space Station.

APR's Pat Duggins had the chance to talk with NASA Astronaut Bob Hines. The veteran crew member of the International Space Station's Expedition 67 is only the second University of Alabama graduate to fly in space. Two time Space Shuttle pilot James Kelly is the other. Astronaut Hines is on campus for UA Space Days this week. Duggins began his conversation by asking the NASA veteran what inspired him to pursue a career in space.

One exhibit at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration is the Apollo 16 Command Module “Casper.” This aging spacecraft is more poignant this week as the nation mourns the loss of Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who helped Apollo 13 crew return safely home. He died at the age of 87. Mattingly flew in that vehicle on the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission in 1972.

On Sunday, July 2, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center will launch a free summer activity celebrating 50 years since the launch of Skylab. This latest session is called “Living in Space” and discusses long-duration living in space and microgravity and its effects on human’s body.

The U.S. Space Agency issued a press release on how it assisted in the development of the missing submersible “Titan” that lost contact with the surface after starting last Sunday’s dive to explore the wreckage of the passenger ship Titanic.

More than 800 students from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico launched high-powered, amateur rockets near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the culminating event for the agency’s annual Student Launch challenge.