Tag: commercial-space
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Falcon 9 rocket completes static fire test, aims for launch early Wednesday
A plume of exhaust appears at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Saturday as the Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin main engines ignite for a hold-down test-firing. Credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now A week after a test-firing of SpaceX’s new crew capsule went awry, SpaceX successfully completed a hold-down firing…
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Few details available in early days of SpaceX accident investigation
SuperDraco thrusters on a ground test article of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft fire during a hover test in 2015. Credit: SpaceX NASA and SpaceX officials have said little this week about the apparent explosion of a Crew Dragon capsule Saturday during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, and members of a safety advisory panel said…
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Carbon-monitoring instrument poised for launch to International Space Station
An astronaut on the International Space Station captured this image of the Florida peninsula April 20. Credit: NASA A $110 million NASA science instrument twice targeted for cancellation by the Trump administration is set for launch Tuesday inside the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule for delivery to the International Space Station, where it…
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Photos: Antares rocket blasts off from Virginia
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launch April 17 from Virginia’s Eastern Shore marked the start of the 11th Cygnus resupply mission to the International Space Station. Firing away from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, the 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) Antares rocket arced toward the southeast over the Atlantic Ocean powered by…
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SpaceX likely to move next rocket landing to drone ship
File photo of a Falcon 9 booster landing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean following a launch in November 2018. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is likely to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket set for launch April 30 on a drone ship just off the…
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Intelsat declares drifting satellite total loss
Workers mount the Intelsat 29e communications satellite atop an Ariane 5 launcher in French Guiana on Jan. 18, 2016, in preparation for its launch later that month. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon Intelsat has declared the Intelsat 29e communications satellite a total loss after the Boeing-built spacecraft suffered a…
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SpaceX confirms anomaly during Crew Dragon abort engine test
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) with additional details. Updated at 7:55 p.m. EDT (2355 GMT) with new photo. Updated at 8:20 p.m. EDT (0020 GMT) with Bridenstine statement. An orange plume rises from Landing Zone 1, where SpaceX typically lands its rocket boosters, in this image taken by a passenger on…
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SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers anomaly during engine test; no injuries reported
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is hauled aboard a recovery ship at the end of a mission to the International Space Station in March. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX suffered a setback in preparations for its first crewed launch to the International Space Station today when one of its Crew Dragon spacecraft experienced an anomaly during an…
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Errant command doomed Israeli moon lander, officials vow to try again
A camera aboard the Israeli Beresheet lunar lander captured this picture of the moon from an altitude of 15 kilometers, or about 49,000 feet. Credit: SpaceIL A command uplinked by mission control to resolve an error in the guidance system on the Israeli Beresheet moon lander inadvertently triggered a chain reaction that led to the…
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Antares rocket boosts Cygnus supply ship toward International Space Station
Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls A commercial Cygnus cargo freighter packed with 3.8 tons of medical and pharmaceutical experiments, technology demonstration hardware, CubeSats, food and supplies rode an Antares rocket into orbit from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Wednesday afternoon on the first leg of a day-and-a-half journey…