Tag: commercial-space
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Virgin Galactic begins moving space effort from California to New Mexico spaceport
Spaceport America is becoming the true base of operations for Virgin Galactic. (Virgin Galactic Photo) After two successful crewed test flights to a 50-mile-high space milestone, Virgin Galactic says it’s shifting its operations from California to New Mexico’s Spaceport America — lock, stock and spaceship. Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, made the announcement in…
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Jeff Bezos unveils Blue Moon lunar lander and shares updated vision for Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos shows off a mockup of the Blue Moon lunar lander. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos today laid out the architecture for missions to the moon aimed at supporting NASA’s goal of landing astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024. The game plan for Bezos’ space venture,…
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Jeff Bezos unveils ‘Blue Moon’ lander
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, reveals the “Blue Moon” moon lander during an event Thursday in Washington, D.C. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, discussed his vision for spaceflight and lunar exploration Thursday in Washington, revealing new details about a privately-developed lunar lander he said will…
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Commercial crew capsules still beset by parachute problems
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated May 10 with NASA statement. SpaceX performs a parachute test for their Dragon capsule over the Delamar Dry Lake in this file photo from 2016. Credit: SpaceX A malfunction during a drop test over Nevada last month for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon program has engineers re-examining the crew capsule’s parachutes, and Boeing has also…
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SpaceX plans to launch “dozens” of Starlink test satellites this month
A Falcon 9 rocket climbs into the night sky over Cape Canaveral early May 4 with a Dragon supply ship heading for the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s next launch, scheduled for no earlier than May 15, will loft dozens of small test satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral for the company’s planned Starlink…
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SpaceX cargo ship reaches space station
Credit: NASA TV A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship caught up with the International Space Station early Monday and then stood by while Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, operating the lab’s robot arm, locked onto the spacecraft to wrap up a two-day rendezvous. “Well done, well captured,” a flight controller radioed from the Johnson Space Center in…
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Rocket Lab deploys experimental U.S. military smallsats on first night launch
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off at 0600 GMT (2 a.m. EDT; 6 p.m. New Zealand time) Sunday. Credit: Rocket Lab On its first nighttime launch, Rocket Lab’s Electron booster climbed into orbit Sunday from New Zealand with a trio of small U.S. military payloads, demonstrating the privately-developed rocket’s ability to help meet the Air…
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SpaceX launches space station resupply mission, lands rocket on drone ship
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad at 2:48:58 a.m. EDT (0648:58 GMT) Saturday. Credit: SpaceX With a thundering, sky-lighting predawn blastoff from Cape Canaveral, a Falcon 9 rocket fired into orbit early Saturday with a Dragon cargo capsule in pursuit of the International Space Station. Less than nine…
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Live coverage: Rocket Lab launches three U.S. military smallsats
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying three U.S. military-sponsored experimental satellites into orbit on the STP-27RD mission. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins around 15 minutes prior to launch, and…
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Falcon 9 launch scrubbed by problem on landing ship
File photo of SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” Credit: SpaceX An electrical problem on SpaceX’s drone ship parked just off the coast of Cape Canaveral prompted SpaceX to scrub a Falcon 9 launch attempt early Friday, delaying the start of a resupply mission to the International Space Station by 24 hours.…