Tag: commercial-space
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Musk sets expectations low for maiden Falcon Heavy launch
Artist’s illustration of the Falcon Heavy’s two side-mounted boosters separating from the rocket’s core stage a few minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX When SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket finally takes off for the first time, a debut now scheduled this fall, there’s a good chance the commercial heavy-lifter will falter short of reaching orbit, company founder…
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Sierra Nevada confirms ULA will launch first two Dream Chaser cargo missions
Artist’s concept of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, seen here with folded wings in launch configuration, and the Atlas 5-552 rocket that will send it into orbit. Credit: ULA Sierra Nevada and United Launch Alliance have announced the most powerful version of the Atlas 5 rocket, with five strap-on boosters and a twin-engine upper stage, will…
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Soyuz liftoff glimpsed by orbiting observer and launch pad cameras
The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket July 14 with more than 70 satellites was captured in multiple views from a sharp-eyed orbiting nanosatellite and cameras positioned around the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos, released a video clip containing imagery of last week’s blastoff from several…
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Air Force secretary hints at military space applications for Stratolaunch super-plane
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson chats with Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd (left) at the company’s hangar in Mojave, Calif. The twin-tailed airplane is behind them. (Heather Wilson via Twitter) Stratolaunch, the six-year-old space venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, says it’ll use the world’s biggest airplane to launch small satellites into orbit – but…
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Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser on the move in California
The Dream Chaser test craft pictured during a tow test Monday at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, located at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Credit: Sierra Nevada An atmospheric test model of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft, a cargo carrier for the International Space Station that will take off on top of an Atlas 5…
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Congress toes a cautious line on support for commercial space partnerships
An artist’s conception shows Axiom Space’s commercial space station. (Axiom Space via Vimeo) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of Congress spoke to space industry leaders on Capitol Hill last week to show their support for the private sector, but both sides expressed frustrations as well. At the sixth annual Future Space conference, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, the…
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Soyuz rocket lifts off with 73 satellites
Updated at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m. EDT) with Kanopus-V-IK separation. Updated at 1600 GMT (11 a.m. EDT) with mission success. A Russian Soyuz booster lifted off Friday from Kazakhstan on a complex mission to deploy 73 satellites into three different orbits, including a Russian spacecraft to locate forest fires, 48 CubeSats for Planet’s global Earth…
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Relativity Space CEO provides Congress with a teaser for his stealthy rocket venture
Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis testifies at a Senate subcommittee hearing about commercial space vehicles (U.S. Senate via SpaceKSCBlog / YouTube) The hush-hush space startup Relativity Space is still in stealth mode, but CEO and co-founder Tim Ellis lifted the veil just a bit on the company’s business plan and eight-figure funding today in Washington,…
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Soyuz rolled out for launch of multinational satellite cluster
A Soyuz rocket arrived at a launch pad Tuesday in Kazakhstan for liftoff later this week with a satellite to monitor natural disasters and track forest fires from orbit and 72 secondary payloads from Russia, the United States, Germany, Norway and Japan. The Russian launcher’s blastoff is timed for 0636:49 GMT (2:36:49 a.m. EDT; 12:36:49…
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Photos: Falcon 9 rocket makes evening ascent from pad 39A
Look back on last week’s liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, capping a busy two weeks for the launch company with a successful satellite deployment flight for Intelsat. The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Florida’s Space Coast at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT) Wednesday, July…