Tag: commercial-space
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NASA, SpaceX and a test dummy are ready for Dragon 2’s first trip to space station
An artist’s conception shows a Crew Dragon docking with the International Space Station. (SpaceX / NASA Illustration) NASA gave the all-clear today for the first test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station in a week, setting the stage for crewed missions later this year. There won’t be any crew aboard…
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Israeli moon lander hitches ride on SpaceX launch with Indonesian comsat
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket streaks into a starry sky Thursday night. Credit: SpaceX An Israeli-built moon lander aiming to become the first privately-funded mission reach another planetary body rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on Thursday night aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, riding piggyback with an Indonesian communications spacecraft and an experimental U.S. Air Force…
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Virgin Galactic stages second piloted spaceflight
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave Mackay and co-pilot Michael “Sooch” Masucci at the controls of SpaceShipTwo during Friday’s test flight. Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, Beth Moses, accompanied the pilots on the flight to the edge of space. Credit: Virgin Galactic Two test pilots and their instructor flew…
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Firefly Aerospace gets a Florida launch site
An architectural rendering shows Firefly Aerospace’s future rocket production facility at Exploration Park on Florida’s Space Coast. (Firefly Aerospace Illustration) Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based launch venture that was lifted out of bankruptcy, says it’s struck a deal with Space Florida to establish business operations at Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The terms of the newly executed agreement…
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Israeli moon lander prepared for launch
The completed SpaceIL Beresheet lunar lander is pictured with its solar panels attached. Credit: SpaceIL The privately-funded Israeli Beresheet lunar lander is ready for its historic mission to the moon, aiming to become the first space probe to land on another planetary body without government funding. Funded by philanthropists and donors, the Beresheet lunar lander…
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Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket blasts off with Israeli moon lander, Indonesian comsat
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with the Indonesian Nusantara Satu communications satellite, the Beresheet lunar lander for SpaceIL, and the S5 space surveillance satellite for the Air Force Research Laboratory. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. SpaceX’s…
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‘Big step for Israel’: SpaceX launches lunar lander along with high-flying satellites
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches Indonesia’s Nusantara Satu telecommunications satellite as well as the Israeli Beresheet lunar lander and an Air Force research satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (SpaceX via YouTube) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent the Israeli-made Beresheet lunar lander on the first leg of its journey to the…
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Photos: Beresheet lander tested for historic moon mission
The Beresheet moon lander will attempt to become the first privately-funded spacecraft to reach the moon, and these photos show the robotic probe’s journey through testing inside a clean room at Israel Aerospace Industries, followed by its attachment to a multi-satellite stack for launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. Beresheet, which means “genesis” or “in…
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Falcon 9 launch set for Thursday at Cape Canaveral
The Nusantara Satu spacecraft, topped with the Beresheet lunar lander and the U.S. Air Force’s S5 space situational awareness satellite, is pictured before encapsulation inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SSL SpaceX is set to end a two-month launch drought at Cape Canaveral with a blastoff Thursday night carrying a…
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Experimental British satellite tests harpoon in orbit
A British satellite released from the International Space Station last year has successfully demonstrated a harpoon that could be used on future missions to clean up space debris, officials announced Friday. The harpoon fired out of the RemoveDebris spacecraft Feb. 8, striking a target plate extended from the satellite on a 4.9-foot (1.5-meter) boom. The…