Tag: Commercial Crew
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NASA’s last shuttle commander to helm test flight of Boeing crew capsule
Chris Ferguson aboard the shuttle Atlantis’ flight deck during the STS-135 mission in July 2011. Credit: NASA NASA’s last space shuttle commander — former U.S. Navy fighter pilot Chris Ferguson — will fly Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule on its first piloted test mission to the International Space Station next year. Now a Boeing employee,…
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Photos: Astronauts trained in emergency procedures at Atlas 5 launch pad
Several NASA astronauts, plus Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson, recently participated in a training session at Cape Canaveral, practicing how they would evacuate from the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad in the event of a countdown emergency. Strapped into patented harnesses, the astronauts rode zip lines leading from the 172-foot-level (52-meter) of the Crew Access…
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Boeing delays crew capsule test flights after abort engine problem
The upper and lower domes of the CST-100 Starliner which will carry the vehicle’s first crew into orbit were mated June 19 inside Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This vehicle is known as Spacecraft 2 in Boeing’s fleet. Credit: Boeing Boeing has reshuffled a sequence of…
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SpaceX’s first space-worthy Crew Dragon capsule arrives at Cape Canaveral
The Crew Dragon spacecraft slated to fly on SpaceX’s first commercial crew orbital test flight, without astronauts on-board, arrived at Cape Canaveral this week. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft, a capsule designed to eventually carry astronauts on treks to the International Space Station, has arrived at Cape Canaveral to begin preparations for launch…
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Station astronauts install new cameras on successful spacewalk
Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev took this photo of astronaut Drew Feustel on Thursday’s spacewalk. Credit: Oleg Artemyev/Roscosmos Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Thursday and installed two new cameras on the front of the lab complex that will provide views of commercial crew ships during final approach and docking. The spacewalkers also replaced a…
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New helium tank for SpaceX crew launches still waiting to fly
Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is still working on a new, safer helium tank design needed for launches with astronauts, and the debut of the company’s upgraded Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket earlier this month did not count as one of seven successful missions in “crew configuration” NASA says it requires before putting astronauts aboard the vehicle,…
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Photos: Bangabandhu 1 launched by upgraded Falcon 9 rocket
SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9 rocket debuted May 11 with a successful launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite. The Falcon 9 Block 5 launcher lifted off from pad 39A at 4:14 p.m. EDT (2014 GMT) on May 11 to mark SpaceX’s ninth mission of the year. The “Block…
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SpaceX debuts new model of the Falcon 9 rocket designed for astronauts
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off Friday from launch pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX debuted a more reusable, higher-thrust model of the Falcon 9 rocket Friday, hauling Bangladesh’s first communications satellite into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast. The successful launch propelled SpaceX closer to launching astronauts for NASA, which will fly on the same “Block…
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NASA could extend space station stays as hedge against commercial crew delays
File photo of acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA is working with the Russian space agency to potentially extend crew stays on the International Space Station, the agency’s acting administrator said last week, as a cushion against expected delays in the development of commercial crew capsules by Boeing and SpaceX. Robert Lightfoot,…
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Boeing proposes extending test flight of commercial crew capsule
Artist’s illustration of a CST-100 Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Credit: Boeing NASA has agreed to consider a Boeing proposal to extend the first piloted test flight of its commercial CST-100 Starliner crew capsule from two weeks to up to six months with an extra crew member for the International Space Station,…