Tag: commercial-space
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SpaceX abort test serves as practice run for astronauts, rescue teams
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 11 p.m. EST Jan. 16 (0400 GMT Jan. 17) after Falcon 9 was raised vertical. NASA astronaut Doug Hurley participates in a 2019 training event to rehearse pre-launch crew operations for a Crew Dragon mission. Credit: SpaceX A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule were raised vertical at launch pad…
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Kuaizhou 1A rocket lofts Chinese broadband test satellite
A Kuaizhou 1A launcher lifts off Thursday from the Jiuquan space center in northwestern China. Credit: CASIC A solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A launcher carried a commercial broadband communications satellite into orbit Thursday for GalaxySpace, a Chinese company that says it plans to launch up to 144 spacecraft for a space-based 5G network in the next few…
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Boeing releases in-cabin video from Starliner’s orbital test flight
Boeing has released a highlights reel video from in-cabin cameras on the December orbital test flight of an unpiloted Starliner crew capsule, showing views astronauts might experience on future missions. The video includes views out the window of the Starliner spacecraft during its early morning liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Dec.…
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Argentine smallsats hitch ride with Chinese payloads on Long March rocket
A Long March 2D rocket lifts off from the Taiyuan space base Wednesday with four satellites on-board. Credit: Xinhua Two Earth-imaging microsatellites built and owned by the Argentine company Satellogic launched on a Long March 2D rocket from China Wednesday, sharing a ride into orbit with two Chinese spacecraft. The ÑuSat 7 and 8 satellites…
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Boeing expects ‘minimal refurbishment’ on reusable Starliner crew capsule
Boeing’s first space-ready Starliner crew capsule, named Calypso, is back inside the company’s assembly facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a two-day orbital test flight in December. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now While NASA and Boeing engineers investigate the cause of a software error that cut short the first orbital test…
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Video: Preview of dramatic Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test
SpaceX’s final planned Crew Dragon test flight before astronauts ride the commercial spaceship into orbit is scheduled for Saturday, when an unpiloted crew capsule will fire off the top of a Falcon 9 rocket shortly after launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to test the craft’s in-flight emergency escape capability. This video illustrates…
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AEHF satellite arrives in Florida for first of nearly 20 Space Force launches this year
File photo of the liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: United Launch Alliance The sixth and final satellite in the U.S. military’s network of ultra-secure, nuclear-hardened AEHF communications relay stations has arrived in Florida for final preparations for liftoff in March on a United Launch…
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Dynetics, Sierra Nevada partnering on human-rated lunar lander proposal
Artist’s concept of the Dynetics proposal for a Human Landing System. Credit: Dynetics Dynetics, an Alabama-based company with broad experience as a supplier of aerospace components and systems, is seeking a major role in NASA’s Artemis moon program with a proposal for a human-rated lunar lander developed in partnership with Sierra Nevada Corp. and other…
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SpaceX test-fires rocket ahead of Crew Dragon in-flight abort test
Credit: Steven Young / Spaceflight Now SpaceX fired up nine Merlin main engines at the bottom of a previously-flown Falcon 9 booster Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, running the rocket through a practice countdown before a scheduled liftoff Jan. 18 with a Crew Dragon capsule to test the human-rated ship’s high-altitude abort capability. The…
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Live coverage: SpaceX prepares for Crew Dragon in-flight abort test
Live coverage of SpaceX’s preparations for the next Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will loft an unpiloted Crew Dragon spacecraft on a high-altitude test of the capsule’s launch abort system. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Credit: Steven Young / Spaceflight…