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Albania Renames Street in Capital Tirana as Free Ukraine

A member of a civil society lights a candle during a protest in solidarity with the Ukrainian people after Russia's military operation against Ukraine, front of the Russian embassy in Tirana, Albania. February 24, 2022. (Reuters)
A member of a civil society lights a candle during a protest in solidarity with the Ukrainian people after Russia's military operation against Ukraine, front of the Russian embassy in Tirana, Albania. February 24, 2022. (Reuters)
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Albania Renames Street in Capital Tirana as Free Ukraine

A member of a civil society lights a candle during a protest in solidarity with the Ukrainian people after Russia's military operation against Ukraine, front of the Russian embassy in Tirana, Albania. February 24, 2022. (Reuters)
A member of a civil society lights a candle during a protest in solidarity with the Ukrainian people after Russia's military operation against Ukraine, front of the Russian embassy in Tirana, Albania. February 24, 2022. (Reuters)

Albania will rename a street in its capital Tirana where the Russian and Ukrainian embassies are located as Free Ukraine to honor Ukraine's resistance to war, the mayor said on Sunday.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO member Albania has joined other European countries in introducing economic sanctions and banning Russian aircraft from its air space.

"Our generation will be marked by this bloody Russian aggression, and the heroic resistance of Ukraine should be remembered in our public places," Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj told Reuters.

The street was previously named after Donika Kastrioti, who was the wife of Albania's national hero Skanderbeg. The embassies of Serbia and Kosovo are also located on the street.

Mayor Veliaj said the new name would be a reminder for the Russian embassy staff. "The Russians will have to work, live and get their mail on a Free Ukraine street address."

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbor's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

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2 Astronauts Left Behind in Space as Boeing's Troubled Capsule Returns to Earth

In this image from video provided by NASA, the empty Boeing Starliner capsule floats down towards White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, after undocking from the International Space Station. (NASA via AP)
In this image from video provided by NASA, the empty Boeing Starliner capsule floats down towards White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, after undocking from the International Space Station. (NASA via AP)
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2 Astronauts Left Behind in Space as Boeing's Troubled Capsule Returns to Earth

In this image from video provided by NASA, the empty Boeing Starliner capsule floats down towards White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, after undocking from the International Space Station. (NASA via AP)
In this image from video provided by NASA, the empty Boeing Starliner capsule floats down towards White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, after undocking from the International Space Station. (NASA via AP)

Boeing’s first astronaut mission ended Friday night with an empty capsule landing and two test pilots still in space, left behind until next year because NASA judged their return too risky.
Six hours after departing the International Space Station, Starliner parachuted into New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, descending on autopilot through the desert darkness.
It was an uneventful close to a drama that began with the June launch of Boeing's long-delayed crew debut and quickly escalated into a dragged-out cliffhanger of a mission stricken by thruster failures and helium leaks. For months, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ return was in question as engineers struggled to understand the capsule’s problems, The Associated Press reported.
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.
Wilmore and Williams should have flown Starliner back to Earth by mid-June, a week after launching in it. But their ride to the space station was marred by the cascade of thruster trouble and helium loss, and NASA ultimately decided it was too risky to return them on Starliner.
So with fresh software updates, the fully automated capsule left with their empty seats and blue spacesuits along with some old station equipment.
“She’s on her way home,” Williams radioed as the white and blue-trimmed capsule undocked from the space station 260 miles (420 kilometers) over China and disappeared into the black void.
Williams stayed up late to see how everything turned out. “A good landing, pretty awesome,” said Boeing's Mission Control.
Cameras on the space station and a pair of NASA planes caught the capsule as a white streak coming in for the touchdown, which drew cheers and applause.
Starliner’s crew demo capped a journey filled with delays and setbacks. After the space shuttles retired more than a decade ago, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX for orbital taxi service. Boeing ran into so many problems on its first test flight with no one aboard in 2019 that it had to repeat it. The 2022 do-over uncovered even more flaws and the repair bill topped $1 billion.
SpaceX’s crew ferry flight later this month will be its 10th for NASA since 2020. The Dragon capsule will launch on the half-year expedition with only two astronauts since two seats are reserved for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg.
As veteran astronauts and retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams anticipated hurdles on the test flight. They’ve kept busy in space, helping with repairs and experiments. The two are now full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board.
Even before the pair launched on June 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Starliner’s propulsion system was leaking helium. The leak was small and thought to be isolated, but four more cropped up after liftoff. Then five thrusters failed. Although four of the thrusters were recovered, it gave NASA pause as to whether more malfunctions might hamper the capsule’s descent from orbit.
Boeing conducted numerous thruster tests in space and on the ground over the summer, and was convinced its spacecraft could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA could not get comfortable with the thruster situation and went with SpaceX.
Flight controllers conducted more test firings of the capsule’s thrusters following undocking; one failed to ignite. Engineers suspect the more the thrusters are fired, the hotter they become, causing protective seals to swell and obstruct the flow of propellant. They won’t be able to examine any of the parts; the section holding the thrusters was ditched just before reentry.
Starliner will be transported back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where the analyses will unfold.
“We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program,” Boeing program manager Mark Nappi said in a statement.
NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said earlier this week that the space agency remains committed to having two competing US companies transporting astronauts. The goal is for SpaceX and Boeing to take turns launching crews — one a year per company — until the space station is abandoned in 2030 right before its fiery reentry. That doesn’t give Boeing much time to catch up.
“We are excited to have Starliner home safely. This was an important test flight for NASA in setting us up for future missions” with Boeing, Stich said in a statement after the return.