Tag: Commercial Crew
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The world’s most-traveled crew transport spacecraft flies again
SpaceX’s oldest Crew Dragon spacecraft launched Sunday night on its fifth mission to the International Space Station, and engineers are crunching data to see if the fleet of Dragons can safely fly as many as 15 times. It has been five years since SpaceX launched the first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight…
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Private astronaut mission likely first to use SpaceX’s new crew access tower
The crew access arm is manuevered into place on the newly constructed tower at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. A crew access arm was lifted into place at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral on Monday, as SpaceX races to ready the pad for its first Crew Dragon…
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SpaceX Crew-6 returns to Earth after six-month ISS Stay
After more than six months in space, four people splashed down in the waters near Florida. The SpaceX Crew-6 mission, which launched on March 2 and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) the following day, undocked on Sept. 3 at 7:05 EDT (11:05 UTC). Recovery vessels retrieved the crew and their capsule, Crew Dragon…
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Valves are a regular concern at SpaceX, just like every other space company
SpaceX is launching a mission about once every four days, and most of those flights are going to space to deploy Internet satellites for the company’s own Starlink broadband network. But this week is different. Aside from two more missions carrying Starlink satellites, SpaceX is preparing to send a four-person crew to the International Space…
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Crew-7 mission to the Space Station given green light for launch by NASA, partners
A SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon Endurance capsule stand ready on pad 39A for the Crew 7 mission. Image: NASA. NASA, SpaceX and its international partners met at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday and gave the go ahead for the launch of the seventh operational Crew Dragon mission to the space station. The three…
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Technical snags force another delay for Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule
Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule descends toward White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico to wrap up the unpiloted Orbital Flight Test 2 mission on May 25, 2022. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Boeing and NASA officials said Thursday the first launch of astronauts on Boeing’s delay-prone Starliner crew capsule won’t happen in July after engineers recently discovered…
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Crew operations training gears up for Starliner and Orion
Operations to support the upcoming first crew flights of Starliner and Orion are increasing around the Kennedy Space Center as both vehicles head toward that major milestone. Starliner operations have included United Launch Alliance (ULA), NASA, and Space Launch Delta 45 teams, as well as the crew for the vehicle’s upcoming Crew Flight Test (CFT),…
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SpaceX and NASA in final preparations for Crew-5 mission
With the launch just weeks away, SpaceX, NASA, and their international partners are in final preparations for the fifth operational Crew Dragon mission. As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), Crew-5 will be SpaceX’s fifth long-duration crew mission, eighth overall crewed mission, and the first mission with a Russian Cosmonaut. Crew-5 will launch from…
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Starliner completes OFT-2 test flight with White Sands landing
After successfully rendezvousing and docking with the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing’s Starliner completed its mission, arriving back to Earth after a six-day-long mission in low Earth orbit. The spacecraft autonomously undocked from the forward-facing port at the Harmony module of the ISS at 2:36 p.m. today, wrapping up its stay at the orbiting laboratory.…
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Starliner makes first docking with ISS on OFT-2 mission
A day into its OFT-2 mission, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station for the first time. Starliner’s docking, which marks a major milestone in Boeing’s demonstration flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, occurred at 8:28 PM EDT on Friday (00:28 UTC on Saturday). The Orbital Test Flight 2 (OFT-2) mission is…