Tag: International Space Station
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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 booster from Cape Canaveral on recording-breaking 18th flight
A Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the sky, sending 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on their way to low Earth orbit. This was the 18th launch and landing of this booster, tail number 1058. Image: Michael Cain SpaceX broke another re-flight record on Friday evening with the launch of 23 more Starlink satellites on a…
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After decades of dreams, a commercial spaceplane is almost ready to fly
LOUISVILLE, Colorado—The first Dream Chaser spaceplane built to go into orbit is starting to look the part. Its foldable wings and fuselage are covered in custom-fitted ceramic tiles to shield the spacecraft’s composite structure from the scorching heat of atmospheric reentry as it flies back to Earth. It has its landing gear, and technicians buzz…
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ISS Roundup: Expedition 70 underway, Rubio’s record stay in space, technical issues, completed EVAs
The last few months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been eventful. Expedition 70 is underway after two crew handovers, a bearing on a solar array rotary joint seized up, and a coolant leak on the Russian segment occurred. Currently, the ISS crew has completed Russian EVA-61, although key objectives were not fully accomplished,…
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Russian space station laboratory module coolant leak under investigation
File Photo of the Nauka module at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Shane Kimbrough An apparent exterior coolant leak from a Russian laboratory module at the International Space Station has been reported by the crew. It follows similar leaks that struck a Russian Soyuz crew ferry craft and a Progress cargo ship within the past…
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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-person crew returns to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule
A SpaceX Dragon capsule with a crew of four returning from the International Space Station streaked through the atmosphere over Florida and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean early Monday, closing out the company’s initial commercial crew contract with NASA. But SpaceX has at least eight more space station crew rotation missions under contract with…
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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…
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NASA, SpaceX conducts Crew-7 mission to ISS
NASA launched its next astronaut rotation, Crew-7, to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, docking the following day. The four astronauts launched from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket in the Dragon spacecraft C210-3 Endurance. The first attempt stood down from…
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Valves are a regular concern at SpaceX, just like every other space company
SpaceX is launching a mission about once every four days, and most of those flights are going to space to deploy Internet satellites for the company’s own Starlink broadband network. But this week is different. Aside from two more missions carrying Starlink satellites, SpaceX is preparing to send a four-person crew to the International Space…
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Jeanette Epps will finally go to space six years after being pulled from flight
NASA confirmed on Friday that Jeanette Epps, a former CIA technology intelligence officer selected as an astronaut in 2009, will finally launch into space in early 2024 on a SpaceX flight to the International Space Station. The crew assignment comes six years after NASA pulled Epps from what would have been her first spaceflight, just…