Tag: Boeing
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Virgin Orbit’s first launch could happen later this month
Virgin Orbit’s carrier jet, named Cosmic Girl, takes off April 12 from the Mojave Air and Space Port with the LauncherOne rocket under its left wing. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News Virgin Orbit could attempt its first orbital test launch later this month over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles, capping a development program…
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Hopeful for launch next year, NASA aims to resume SLS operations within weeks
A crane hoisted the Space Launch System core stage into the B-2 test stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in January. Credit: NASA/SSC With the Space Launch System’s inaugural test flight now officially delayed to November 2021, NASA says work halted by the coronavirus pandemic will resume within weeks to prepare for the first test-firing…
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Companies release new details on human-rated lunar lander concepts
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated May 1 with details from Blue Origin. Artist’s illustration of SpaceX’s Starship on the lunar surface. Credit: SpaceX The next time astronauts land on the moon, they will ride to the lunar surface in a spacecraft that looks a lot different than the Apollo-era landing module last used in 1972. Lander concepts proposed…
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Blue Origin wins lion’s share of NASA funding for human-rated lunar lander
Artist’s illustration of Blue Origin’s lunar lander with an ascent stage, and astronauts on the lunar surface. Credit: Blue Origin NASA has selected Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to move forward with development of human-rated lunar landers, committing nearly $1 billion in funding for a range of moonship concepts that include a variant of SpaceX’s…
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From Shuttle Sadness to Dragon Delight – USA prepares to regain domestic crew launch capability
The gap in US domestic crew launch capability is coming to an end as soon as next month, concluding a convoluted and painful path that ultimately began when Columbia was lost during STS-107. The last time American astronauts launched from US soil was in 2011 with Shuttle Atlantis during STS-135. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is set…
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Falcon Heavy set for design validation milestone before late 2020 launch
A Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on June 25, 2019. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky The U.S. Space Force expects to complete design validation on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket by July, ahead of the launch of the military’s first high-priority national security mission on the heavy-lifter late this year.…
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Next GPS launch delayed by coronavirus concerns; X-37B launch remains on track
The third GPS 3-series satellite inside Lockheed Martin’s spacecraft manufacturing plant in Colorado. Credit: Lockheed Martin U.S. military officials said Tuesday the launch of the next satellite for the GPS navigation network — planned for April 29 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — has been delayed to no earlier than June 30 to avoid…
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Boeing says it’ll redo uncrewed flight test of Starliner space taxi to space station
An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s Starliner space taxi in orbit. (Boeing Illustration) Boeing says it will redo the uncrewed test flight of its Starliner space taxi to the International Space Station, after months of reviewing what went wrong during a flight that fell short of the mark. NASA said it supported Boeing’s decision. Last December’s…
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After problem-plagued test flight, Boeing will refly crew capsule without astronauts
In this file photo from 2019, technicians prepare Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for fueling before its first unpiloted space mission. Credit: Boeing Boeing officials said Monday the company’s Starliner crew capsule will fly a second time without astronauts after software problems and other issues plagued a first test flight in December, preventing the ship from…
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Facing pandemic, NASA shutters rocket factory, halts SLS and Orion testing
The core stage for NASA’s first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket was hoisted into a vertical test stand in January at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Credit: NASA NASA announced Thursday that work on the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion crew capsule at facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi is being halted due…