Tag: commercial-space
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Chinese startup plans first orbital launch attempt this week
Components of OneSpace’s first OS-M launch vehicle during an assembly rehearsal. Credit: OneSpace A Chinese startup named OneSpace could test its first full-scale launcher as soon as Wednesday in a bid to become China’s first privately-funded rocket company to place a satellite in orbit around the Earth. OneSpace’s OS-M rocket will lift off from the…
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Timeline for Rocket Lab’s launch of DARPA’s R3D2 tech demo satellite
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated March 24, March 25 and 26 with new launch dates. Rocket Lab’s light-class Electron launcher is set to take off on its fifth flight from New Zealand, aiming for a 264-mile-high (425-kilometer) orbit with DARPA’s R3D2 technology demonstration satellite. The two-stage, 55-foot-tall (17-meter) rocket is scheduled for liftoff during a four-hour window…
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Live coverage: Rocket Lab launches experimental satellite for DARPA
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying DARPA’s Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration (R3D2) satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins around 15 minutes prior to launch, and will be…
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Rocket Lab readies for launch with U.S. military satellite
The Electron rocket’s payload shroud for the R3D2 mission. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab teams in New Zealand are preparing for the company’s first launch of the year Sunday (U.S. time) with a small experimental satellite for DARPA, the U.S. military’s research and development agency. Liftoff of Rocket Lab’s two-stage Electron rocket from the company’s…
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Beresheet lander on course for the moon
A camera on-board the Beresheet lander captured this view of Earth from a distance of more than 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers). Credit: SpaceIL The privately-funded Israeli Bersesheet lander is on course to enter orbit around the moon April 4 after another boost from its main engine Tuesday. A 60-second firing by Beresheet’s 100-pound-thrust main engine…
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Air Force sees upcoming Falcon Heavy launches as key to certifying reused rockets
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated March 15 with target launch date. SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket climbs into the sky from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is gearing up for the first commercial launch of its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as early April with a communications satellite…
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Facing more delays, NASA opens door to launching lunar mission with commercial rockets
Artist’s illustration of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and its European-built service module, powered toward the moon by an upper stage engine. Credit: NASA In a major shift, NASA is considering using two commercial launchers to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule and its European-built service module on a test flight around the moon next year, maintaining…
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SpaceX crew capsule returns to Earth, paving the way for human launches
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday with an on-target splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft closed out a six-day test flight in low Earth orbit Friday with an on-target splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, and officials hailed the ship’s performance before it flies with astronauts…
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SpaceX crew ship set for Friday re-entry, splashdown
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION A view “Ripley,” the instrumented dummy inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft, shortly after the capsule’s hatch was closed Thursday in preparation for undocking. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now Space station astronauts closed hatches to the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Thursday, setting the stage for undocking early Friday and a…
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Photos: Crew Dragon moves in for first docking
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took these pictures of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft as it approached for docking Sunday, a day after launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The capsule linked up with a docking port on the forward end of the station’s Harmony module at 5:51 a.m. EST (1051 GMT) Sunday,…