There’s no reason why the International Space Station can’t remain active well past 2020, Boeing officials told members of the media Tuesday in Arlington, Va. In fact, the company recently uploaded nine million lines of software code to the space station, and they have plans to upgrade its environmental control station and also add high-definition TVs, said John Elbon, Boeing’s vice president of space exploration. There also is a study under way to certify the station through 2028, he said. “We are undergoing a change in space exploration. After going through a very stable period of shuttle launches, we went through several years of national debate of what’s next for space,” said Elbon. “We finally settled on a plan of continuing to use the station and focusing on human exploration into deep space.” Atlantis, the final space shuttle, landed last July at Cape Canaveral, Fla., closing out three decades of US shuttle flights. Thursday marks the 31st anniversary of the first shuttle flight.
The crash of a T-38 trainer jet this May—which caused a weekslong pause in flights across the fleet—was caused by an improperly installed pin for one of the jet’s horizontal stabilizers, according to a new accident report released Oct. 30. When the pin disengaged midflight, it created the slightest amount…