All this week’s space news in one place

Returned capsule, delayed missions, telescope anniversary — All this week’s space news in one place

Here’s a collection of all the news concerning space this week

Updated: 1:38 PM EDT Sep 7, 2024

It’s been a busy week for space travel and exploration this week. From returning capsules to stranded astronauts, maiden voyages and telescope images — here’s a look at all of our space stories from this week:After a troubled voyage so far, Boeing’s empty Starliner capsule made its way home.Boeing’s Starliner capsule undocked from the International Space Station Friday evening — concluding its nearly three-month stay in space. But it’s flying with an empty cabin, leaving behind two test pilots who must now remain on the station for another five or six months.The Starliner left its docking port at the space station just after 6 p.m. ET on Friday, according to NASA. The capsule spent about six hours free-flying through orbit as it slowly made its descent toward home.Boeing’s first mission in space comes with a cliffhanger ending, as its two astronauts stay aboard the International Space Station until next year.For months, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ return was in question as engineers struggled to understand the capsule’s problems.Boeing insisted after extensive testing that Starliner was safe to bring the two home, but NASA disagreed and booked a flight with SpaceX instead. Their SpaceX ride won’t launch until the end of this month, which means they’ll be up there until February — more than eight months after blasting off on what should have been a quick trip.NASA celebrates the 25th anniversary of an observatory with some birthday ‘songs,’ if you will.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration released three clips of what is called “sonification” of three galactic images from the Chandra X-ray telescope.”Sonification is a process that translates astronomical data into sound, similar to how digital data are more routinely turned into images,” according to NASA.An exclusive interview with a fresh astronaut — and a surprise from her fellow astronauts.Astronaut Jeanette Epps has been on the International Space Station since early March, helping with research for the future.”We lifted off, and it was an amazing feeling,” Epps told 11 News in an exclusive video conference interview. “It was truly exhilarating.”Epps is already in an elite club of people who have traveled to space or have been on the International Space Station. Narrow that down to the number of Black women who have done so, and you’ll find just a few.SpaceX is helming a maiden voyage of four civilian astronauts with Polaris Dawn — if the delays don’t stop it.The mission, which will launch from Kennedy Space Center, is the first of three planned spaceflights part of the Polaris program. Two of the four members on the flight are expected to leave their capsule and conduct a spacewalk, the first private citizens to do so. After several delays already, it looks like Polaris’ launch is now scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9, at the earliest.Here’s everything you need to know about the historic mission taking off from Florida soon:A Challenger astronaut and public school teacher is immortalized with a statue in her home state.On Monday, just as she did 38 years ago, Christa McAuliffe made history as the first female Granite Stater to be set in stone in front of New Hampshire’s Capitol. McAuliffe, who was a social studies teacher in Concord, was chosen to be the first private citizen in space. On Jan. 28, 1986, McAuliffe boarded the Challenger Space Shuttle, which tragically exploded just 73 seconds into the flight, killing her and six other crew members on board.