The Washington Post reports that for nearly 17 years, NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A spacecraft “drifted through space on a lonely mission.” It traveled “around the sun far ahead of Earth, conducting groundbreaking research on the solar system’s star.” Like many NASA spacecraft, STEREO-A “outlived its mission life span of two years.” Instead, it “traveled further and further away from Earth on a journey that became fraught with uncertainty as it passed behind the sun in 2015, temporarily severing contact with NASA.” The same year, the agency “lost contact with STEREO-A’s sibling vessel, STEREO-B, which was traveling a similar path.” But STEREO-A kept going. And its orbital trajectory “around the sun meant that it had a chance to do what very few other NASA spacecraft could: eventually make its way back toward home.”
Full Story (Washington Post)
Tag: Summer 2024
FAA Orders Inspections of 20 Pratt & Whitney GTF Engines
AP reported that “U.S. regulators are requiring immediate inspections and possible repairs to Pratt & Whitney engines on some Airbus passenger jets because of a manufacturing problem that could cause parts to wear out sooner than expected.” The FAA said it would “require ultrasonic inspections of 20 engines on U.S.-registered planes within 30 days. The same flaw affects 202 engines worldwide.” The new FAA rule “replaces a directive from October, which told aircraft operators to have the engines checked at their next shop visit, and followed a disclosure last month by Pratt that about 200 engines around the world would need quick inspections and potential replacement of engine disks.”
Full Story (Associated Press)
Airlines Plan to Add New Routes Hoping for Continued Strong Travel Demand
AP reports that building on strong bookings this summer, American Airlines “said Thursday it will add three new European destinations next summer and revive another international route that it last flew in 2019.” The announcement “comes one day after Delta Air Lines said it will expand service to China later this year.” The news from two of the biggest US carriers “underscores the airline industry’s confidence that its strong recovery from the pandemic will continue and that planes will remain packed.” American said that next summer it “will add flights to Copenhagen, Naples and Nice, France – all new destinations for the airline – from Philadelphia.” It plans to “resume flights between Chicago and Venice that were dropped four years ago.”
Full Story (Associated Press)