Tag: Human Spaceflight
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NASA will likely add a rendezvous test to the first piloted Orion space mission
Artist’s illustration of an Orion spacecraft with the upper stage of its Space Launch System rocket firing its RL10 engine. Credit: NASA Astronauts will likely perform a previously-unplanned demonstration of the Orion spacecraft’s deep space rendezvous capabilities in a high-altitude orbit around Earth on the crew capsule’s first piloted test flight, now scheduled for 2023.…
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NASA inks deal with Roscosmos to ensure continuous U.S. presence on space station
File photo of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft approaching the International Space Station in March 2019. Credit: NASA With lingering uncertainty about when new U.S. commercial vehicles can regularly carry crews to the space station, NASA said Tuesday it will pay the Russian space agency more than $90 million for a round-trip ticket to the International Space Station…
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Cygnus departs space station, beginning extended experimental mission
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT) after Cygnus release. The Cygnus cargo freighter has been released from the International Space Station’s robotic arm, ending the spacecraft’s 83-day stay at the orbiting complex. WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/eyXXSFxOFR pic.twitter.com/XucgpieiSM — Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 11, 2020 A Cygnus supply ship built by Northrop Grumman departed the…
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China’s next-generation crew spacecraft lands after unpiloted test flight
The Chinese crew capsule after landing Friday, concluding an unpiloted orbital test flight. Credit: Xinhua A next-generation Chinese capsule designed to carry astronauts to the country’s planned space station, and eventually the moon, wrapped up a nearly three-day unpiloted orbital test flight Friday with a landing in northwestern China. The prototype for China’s new reusable…
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NASA plans to launch first two Gateway elements on same rocket
Artist’s illustration of the Gateway space station in lunar orbit. Credit: NASA Aiming to reduce risk and costs, NASA has decided to launch the first two modules of the Gateway station in lunar orbit on the same heavy-lift rocket in 2023, rather than fly them on separate rockets and dock them together in deep space,…
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Experimental Chinese cargo return capsule malfunctions during re-entry
Artist’s illustration of the experimental cargo return vehicle. Credit: CCTV An experimental cargo return craft launched as a secondary payload on China’s Long March 5B rocket malfunctioned during its return to Earth on Wednesday, while an unpiloted prototype for the country’s next-generation crew capsule continues raising its orbit before its scheduled landing Friday, Chinese officials…
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China’s first Long March 5B rocket launches on crew capsule test flight
A Chinese Long March 5B rocket climbs into space Tuesday. Credit: CCTV Flying without astronauts on a demonstration flight in Earth orbit, a test model of a next-generation Chinese crew capsule lifted off Tuesday on top of a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket, the same launcher configuration that will loft segments of China’s planned space…
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NASA working with Tom Cruise to film movie on the International Space Station
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.” Credit: Paramount Pictures NASA said Tuesday it is working with Tom Cruise to film a movie on the International Space Station, but details on the arrangements are scarce. The news that Cruise was in talks with to shoot an action-adventure film on the space station was first reported Monday…
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China to debut new version of powerful Long March 5 rocket this week
A view of the next-generation Chinese crew spacecraft during pre-launch processing. Credit: CCTV A prototype for China’s next-generation human-rated spacecraft — flying on a test flight without astronauts — is scheduled to ride a new version of the country’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket into orbit this week. The Long March 5B rocket could take…
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NASA identifies risks in SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander proposal
Artist’s illustration of SpaceX’s Starship on the lunar surface. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s proposal to land astronauts on the moon using the company’s reusable Starship vehicle could be “game-changing” for space exploration, but comes with risks and complexity that “threaten the schedule viability” to achieve NASA’s goal of returning crews moon by the end of 2024,…