Tag: Human Spaceflight
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Video: Slidewire basket crew egress system tested at pad 39A
EDITOR’S NOTE: Videos like this are made possible with the help of Spaceflight Now Members. If you enjoy our coverage of the space industry, please consider becoming a member. SpaceX tested astronaut slidewire escape baskets and fire suppression capabilities Friday at launch pad 39A in Florida, demonstrating rescue systems that would be activated in the event…
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NASA, JAXA assign two more astronauts to second piloted Crew Dragon flight
JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi on-board the International Space Station in 2010. Credit: NASA Veteran astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Shannon Walker have been assigned to fly to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s second piloted Crew Dragon mission later this year, joining commander Mike Hopkins and astronaut Victor Glover on a planned six-month expedition in orbit.…
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NASA picks SpaceX to deliver cargo to Gateway station in lunar orbit
Illustration of the SpaceX Dragon XL as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy’s second stage in high Earth orbit on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit. Credit: SpaceX NASA has selected SpaceX to deliver supplies to the planned Gateway mini-space station in lunar orbit using a new version of the Dragon cargo…
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NASA, U.S. military reviewing SpaceX engine malfunction
Nine Merlin 1D engines arranged in an “octaweb” configuration on the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage. Credit: SpaceX NASA and U.S. military officials are reviewing a malfunction that triggered a premature engine shutdown during a flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket earlier this month, a cautionary step before upcoming launches with a GPS navigation…
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Facing pandemic, NASA shutters rocket factory, halts SLS and Orion testing
The core stage for NASA’s first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket was hoisted into a vertical test stand in January at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Credit: NASA NASA announced Thursday that work on the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion crew capsule at facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi is being halted due…
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Astronaut’s family won’t attend launch next month due to coronavirus threat
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left), Russian Soyuz commander Anatoly Ivanishin (center), and flight engineer Ivan Vagner (right) during training March 11 in Star City, Russia. Credit: Andrey Shelepin/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy’s family will be watching remotely from halfway around the world when he blasts off April 9 from Kazakhstan to begin…
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Apollo astronaut Al Worden dies at 88
Astronaut Al Worden is seen during training before the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. Credit: NASA Former astronaut Al Worden, who orbited the moon and performed the first spacewalk in deep space in 1971, died Wednesday in Texas. He was 88. Born Feb. 7, 1932, in Jackson, Michigan, Worden graduated from United States Military Academy at…
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Soyuz launch preps in Kazakhstan proceed despite travel restrictions
Technicians at the Baikonur Cosmodrome assemble the Soyuz rocket slated to launch Saturday with 34 OneWeb satellites. Credit: Roscosmos While Arianespace missions from French Guiana have been suspended in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the company says a Soyuz rocket launch from Kazakhstan is set to go ahead Saturday with 34 more OneWeb broadband satellites.…
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NASA no longer counting on Gateway for 2024 moon landing
Artist’s concept of the Gateway mini-space station near the moon. Credit: NASA NASA is modifying plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2024 by taking the Gateway — a mini-space station to be assembled in lunar orbit — out of the critical path in favor of a simplified architecture, according to the agency’s…
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NASA inspector general says SLS moon rocket costs continue to climb
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of the Space Launch System Block 1 variant. Credit: NASA The powerful Space Launch System rocket being built for NASA’s Artemis moon program by Boeing, using solid-propellant boosters from Northrop Grumman and main engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne, will have cost more than $18 billion by the…