Tag: commercial-space
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Recycled SpaceX rocket boosts Paz radar satellite, first Starlink testbeds into orbit
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with three satellites. Credit: SpaceX Launching with a Spanish radar observation craft and the first two experimental satellites for SpaceX’s planned global broadband network, a Falcon 9 rocket fired away from California’s Central Coast shortly before sunrise Thursday after several days…
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White House emphasizes industry over science in Space Council appointments
Vice President Mike Pence visited a United Launch Alliance hangar Tuesday evening at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where a Delta 4-Heavy rocket is being readied for liftoff in July. Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO, briefed Pence on the facility. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now A roster of representatives from the commercial space industry, astronauts,…
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National Space Council’s meeting takes aim at industry regulations – and at China
With NASA’s Orion deep-space capsule serving as a backdrop, Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a meeting of the National Space Council at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA via YouTube) Space industry deregulation, and the potential perils posed by China’s space program, shared the spotlight at today’s meeting of the National Space Council, presided…
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Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with three satellites
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the Paz radar observation satellite for Hisdesat of Spain. SpaceX’s live video coverage begins at approximately 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT; 6 a.m. PST). Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to…
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Photos: SpaceX’s imagery of Falcon Heavy test flight
SpaceX this week released a new batch of photos showing the Feb. 6 liftoff of the company’s first Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, followed by landing of the launcher’s two side boosters around eight minutes later at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Falcon Heavy lifted…
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Elon Musk’s Tesla will have a close encounter with Earth in 2091
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Credit: SpaceX Even though it doesn’t obey any earthly speed limit and has a space-suited mannequin for a driver, Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster won’t drive up his insurance rates anytime soon. Researchers say the sports car won’t have a really close encounter with Earth until 2091 and could…
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New drone ship under construction for SpaceX rocket landings
File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster being offloaded from a drone ship at Port Canaveral, Florida. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX will deploy a new rocket landing platform off Florida’s Space Coast to enter a rotation with another drone ship stationed at Cape Canaveral, company founder Elon Musk said Monday. The third drone ship…
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Trump budget aims to kick-start lunar exploration, cancels space telescope
Artist’s concept of NASA’s proposed deep space station near the moon. Credit: NASA The White House’s $19.9 billion NASA budget outline released Monday would continue development of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule and begin the deployment of a mini-space station around the moon as soon as 2022, but the proposal…
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Trump administration supports transition to commercially-focused space station
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION File photo of the International Space Station from the final space shuttle mission in 2011. Credit: NASA The Trump administration is proposing to end direct government support of the International Space Station in 2025, but plans to include $150 million in NASA’s fiscal 2019 budget, to be unveiled Monday,…
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Commercial space ventures hail NASA opportunities in orbit and on the moon
An artist’s conception shows Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander on the lunar surface. (Astrobotic Illustration) The Trump administration’s proposed shift to commercial partners for space operations in low Earth orbit as well as on and around the moon is getting a predictably positive reception from those potential partners. “This moment here, with the shift to the moon,…