censeoryact

"I didn't want to leave," Ferguson said.For only the second time, the leftover first-stage booster of a SpaceX Falcon rocket landed LED trailer lights Factory back at Cape Canaveral following Monday's launch, its return heralded by sonic booms.SpaceX's souped-up Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch by the end of next year. Its primary payload: a docking port needed for the crew-worthy Dragon and Starliner. Hurley is now training for test flights of the new capsules..S soil."Hurley noted how he, Ferguson and the two other Atlantis astronauts — Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim — turned out the cabin lights the night before landing and took in the views of Earth. NASA has been relying on SpaceX and Orbital ATK to keep the station supplied. It fulfilled its primary purpose" of building the station. But the pilots who guided Atlantis to one last "wheels stop" are doing all they can to hurry up the future, albeit from different teams."We're on the verge of commercially taking people back and forth to low-Earth orbit. The other is one of four NASA astronauts training for the initial test flights. After 135 shuttle flights spanning 30 years, "it was sad, but there was a great joy about it, too.

Boeing's Starliner is set to sail to the International Space Station in early 2018. (AP Photo/John Raoux) NASA has been relying on SpaceX and Orbital ATK to keep the station supplied."I just remember just sitting there going, 'This is unbelievable, I can't believe I'm doing this.Ever since shuttles Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour retired to museums, Americans have been stuck riding Russian rockets to the space station."Kennedy Space Center's director, former astronaut Robert Cabana, said it was bittersweet hearing Atlantis' twin sonic booms on return one last time. Like the first time in December, the booster touched down vertically just a few miles from where it took off on the space station delivery mission."So we're sort of setting the stage for commercial habitation of low-Earth orbit — all with the intent of going beyond," he said.He now works for Boeing, one of two private companies coming up with new capsules to carry astronauts.When Atlantis returned to Earth on July 21, 2011, everyone knew there would be a lengthy gap. "I just thought, 'We're not done yet..No longer accustomed to these booms, some area residents called 911 to report a middle-of-the-night explosion.