Tag: commercial-space
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Rocket Lab ready for second booster recovery attempt
Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher during a countdown dress rehearsal earlier this month. Credit: Rocket Lab The scheduled launch Saturday of two commercial BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites from New Zealand will double as an opportunity for Rocket Lab to test an enhanced heat shield on its Electron booster, an upgrade that should allow the company to recover…
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SpaceX outlines plans for Starship orbital test flight
Artist’s concept of a Super Heavy booster and Starship vehicle stacked together during launch. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has revealed the flight plan for the first orbital test launch of the company’s huge stainless steel Starship rocket, a 90-minute, around-the-world mission that will originate from South Texas and culminate with a controlled re-entry and splashdown in…
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NASA, Axiom sign agreements moving ahead with first commercial station visit
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION A view of the Atlantic Ocean from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA NASA and Houston-based Axiom Space have signed a “mission order” setting the stage for four civilians to visit to the International Space Station early next year, the first fully commercial flight to the orbiting lab…
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SpaceX reaches rocket reuse milestone on Starlink launch
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Sunday. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now The launch of another 60 Starlink internet spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Sunday thrust SpaceX past a major milestone in rocket reuse: the 10th successful flight of a Falcon 9 booster. The mission marked the fourth…
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Live coverage: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 60 Starlink broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. EDITOR’S NOTE: SpaceX’s live webcast begins about 15 minutes prior to…
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SpaceX ready to break another rocket reuse record with launch early Sunday
A Falcon 9 rocket launches March 14 with the same booster set to fly a 10th time Sunday. Credit: SpaceX A Falcon 9 rocket and 60 more Starlink internet satellites set for launch early Sunday at Cape Canaveral will mark the first time SpaceX has flown a first stage 10 times, reaching a milestone that…
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Upgraded Starship prototype makes first soft landing after test flight
SpaceX launched and landed an upgraded prototype for the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle in South Texas on Wednesday, the company’s first Starship test flight since winning a $2.9 billion NASA contract to use the craft to land astronauts on the Moon. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO tweeted: “Starship landing nominal!” The 164-foot-tall (50-meter)…
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Starlink launch marks 100 missions since an in-flight Falcon rocket failure
A Falcon 9 rocket takes off Tuesday with 60 Starlink satellites. Credit: SpaceX The oldest Falcon 9 booster in SpaceX’s operational rocket fleet sent 60 more Starlink internet satellites into space Tuesday with a launch from historic pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With the 60 satellites launched Tuesday, SpaceX has sent…
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Crew Dragon brings four astronauts back to nighttime splashdown
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION (Left to right) Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and Soichi Noguchi, prior to disembarking the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience capsule after splashdown. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls. Four astronauts strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to a fiery pre-dawn splashdown…
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Live coverage: Four astronauts return home after 167 days in space
Live coverage of the undocking, re-entry and splashdown of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft with astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Soichi Noguchi, and Shannon Walker. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”NASA TV”] [tabby title=”SFN LIVE”] [tabbyending] EDITOR’S NOTE: NASA TV’s live coverage of hatch closure, undocking, and splashdown begins at 6 p.m.…