Tag: Human Spaceflight
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For Virgin Galactic, becoming profitable means a pause in flying to space
Last year, Virgin Galactic seemed to finally be hitting a stride toward making commercial suborbital spaceflight. The company flew its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane to the edge of space six times in six months, giving a few Virgin Galactic customers a taste of spaceflight after waiting more than a decade. Finally, it appeared that Virgin Galactic…
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Maybe, just maybe, Boeing’s Starliner will finally fly astronauts this spring
We’ve heard this before, but Boeing appears to be a couple of months from finally launching astronauts into orbit aboard the commercial CST-100 Starliner crew capsule. It was about two months prior to this mission’s previous launch date last July when Boeing and NASA officials decided to put a hold on launch preparations. During their…
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Rocket Report: SpaceX at the service of a rival; Endeavour goes vertical
Welcome to Edition 6.29 of the Rocket Report! Right now, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is the only US launch vehicle offering crew or cargo service to the International Space Station. The previous version of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket retired last year, forcing that company to sign a contract with SpaceX to launch its Cygnus supply…
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Axiom, SpaceX launch third all-private crew mission to space station
For the third time, an all-private crew is heading for the International Space Station. The four-man team lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday, kicking off a 36-hour pursuit of the orbiting research laboratory. Docking is scheduled for Saturday morning. This two-week mission is managed by…
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Don’t count on NASA to return humans to the Moon in 2025 or 2026, GAO says
A new report from the Government Accountability Office suggests NASA’s Artemis III mission, which aims to return humans to the Moon’s surface for the first time in more than 50 years, could be delayed from late 2025 until 2027. The readiness of SpaceX’s human-rated lander and new commercial spacesuits developed by Axiom Space are driving…
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For the first time, we’re seeing views of China’s entire space station
China’s Tiangong space station orbits nearly 240 miles (380 kilometers) above Earth. China’s Tiangong space station orbits nearly 240 miles (380 kilometers) above Earth. China’s Tiangong space station orbits nearly 240 miles (380 kilometers) above Earth. China Manned Space Agency China’s Tiangong space station orbits nearly 240 miles (380 kilometers) above Earth. China Manned Space…
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After leading NASA’s mission to Pluto, Alan Stern flies to space himself
It has been fun to watch Virgin Galactic string together six flights to suborbital space this year. The company was founded by Richard Branson in 2004 to open the experience of spaceflight to everyday people and make some money in the process. Virgin Galactic hasn’t achieved those goals yet, but the company has reason to…
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India celebrates “first major milestone” on path to launching astronauts
In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed his nation to develop its own capability to send astronauts into orbit, an achievement that would make India the fourth country with an independent human spaceflight program. On Saturday, that ambition moved a step closer to reality with a successful test of the human-rated spacecraft’s launch-abort system.…
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NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is home after a year in space
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian crewmates parachuted to a landing on the remote steppe of Kazakhstan on Wednesday, capping a 371-day mission at the International Space Station, the longest single spaceflight ever undertaken by an American. It was also the third-longest mission off the planet in the history of human spaceflight, eclipsed only…
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Four people from four different nations ride SpaceX rocket into orbit
SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Saturday, carrying a multinational crew from the United States, Denmark, Japan, and Russia on a flight to the International Space Station. The four crew members strapped into their seats inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft overnight and then waited for a Falcon 9…