Posted: Mon, May 27 10:05 AM ET (1405 GMT)
A Rocket Lab Electron successfully launched the first of two NASA Earth science cubesats Saturday. The Electron lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 3:41 sm EDT (0741 GMT) and placed the first Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) cubesat into orbit. A second PREFIRE cubesat will be launched on another Electron within the next few weeks. The two cubesats, operating in Sun-synchronous orbits, will measure infrared emissions at the Earth's poles to improve climate models. The launch, the 48th by the Electron, took place seven years to the day after the first Electron launch.

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•  NASA press release

Posted: Mon, May 27 9:21 AM ET (1321 GMT)
NASA and Boeing are targeting a June 1 launch of the first crewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft after resolving a helium leak in the spacecraft. At a briefing Friday, officials said they had concluded a helium leak in one thruster in the spacecraft, which caused a series of launch postponements, was not a safety risk and could be managed without repairing the faulty component, a process that would have taken months. During that review, engineers discovered a "design vulnerability" in Starliner's propulsion system that could have prevented the spacecraft from performing a deborit burn in the event of a rare series of failures. A new backup deorbit burn approach has been developed as a workaround for this launch while Boeing investigates long-term hardware or software changes for future missions.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  CNBC article
•  SpacePolicyOnline.com article
•  Ars Technica article
•  Washington Post article

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