Tag: commercial-space
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Israel’s Beresheet lander brakes into lunar orbit
The Beresheet spacecraft’s six-minute deceleration burn Thursday steered the probe into orbit around the moon. Credit: SpaceIL Six weeks after launching from Cape Canaveral, an Israeli-built probe funded through private donations arrived in orbit around the moon Thursday, setting the stage for the mission’s final descent to the lunar surface April 11. Engineers at the…
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Uncrewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner space taxi delayed; crewed flight to be extended
Technicians at the Boeing Space Environment Test Facility in El Segundo, Calif., position a Starliner spaceship inside an acoustic test chamber. (Boeing Photo) NASA today confirmed that the first uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner space taxi to the International Space Station would be delayed until at least August, and also said the first crewed…
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Israel’s Beresheet lander heads for make-or-break lunar capture maneuver
Artist’s illustration of the Beresheet lander in orbit round the moon. Credit: SpaceIL An Israeli spacecraft has one shot Thursday to swing into orbit around the moon with a six-minute engine firing, a critical maneuver that will set up for the privately-funded probe’s historic landing attempt April 11. The hydrazine-fueled main engine mounted to the…
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Two Soyuz rockets rolled out for launches on different continents
Russian ground crews working in starkly different environments on the barren steppes of Kazakhstan and in the lush jungles of South America are readying a pair of Soyuz rockets for two launches Thursday, one to resupply the International Space Station, and another to broaden the capacity of SES’s O3b Internet network. The two launches…
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Boeing delays first Starliner test flight to August, NASA extends duration of first crew mission
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated April 3 with NASA’s confirmation of an extension to the duration of the Crew Flight Test and SpaceX statement on Crew Dragon schedule. This image shows one of three Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew capsules during an environmental test campaign in El Segundo, California, that exposed the spacecraft to the thermal, acoustic and electromagnetic…
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Live coverage: Falcon Heavy launch slips until Wednesday at earliest
Live coverage of SpaceX’s preparations for the launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Spaceflight Now Members can watch a live view of the launch pad. Become a member and support our coverage. Follow…
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Rocket Lab launches DARPA research satellite
Rocket Lab’s fifth Electron rocket launched at 7:27 p.m. EDT (2327 GMT) from the company’s launch complex on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab/Kieran Fanning & Sam Toms A Rocket Lab Electron rocket climbed into orbit from New Zealand Thursday (U.S. time) with an experimental payload for a U.S. military research and development…
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Chinese startup OneSpace fails in first orbital launch attempt
OneSpace’s OS-M rocket is seen veering off course shortly after ignition of its second stage Wednesday. Credit: Weibo A solid-fueled rocket launched Wednesday by the Chinese startup OneSpace flew off course shortly after liftoff, the second time in five months one of China’s new space companies failed in a bid to become the country’s first…
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Pence calls for NASA to land astronauts on the moon within five years
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 2017. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that NASA should land astronauts near the south pole of the moon within five years “by any means necessary,” calling for “new urgency” in the U.S. space program and sounding a warning for entrenched…
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Rocket Lab launch with DARPA’s R3D2 satellite rescheduled for Thursday
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated March 25 and March 26 with new target launch dates. Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket during a countdown Sunday (U.S. time). Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab’s launch team canceled a launch attempt Sunday in New Zealand after discovering a misbehaving video transmitter on the Electron booster set to loft a small U.S. military…