Tag: Kennedy Space Center
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SpaceX’s brisk Starlink launch cadence to continue next week
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Jan. 17 with new launch date of Jan. 21. Updated Jan. 18 with Crew Dragon abort test delay to Jan. 19. File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket inside the company’s hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett SpaceX plans to launch its next group of Starlink broadband…
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SpaceX test-fires rocket ahead of Crew Dragon in-flight abort test
Credit: Steven Young / Spaceflight Now SpaceX fired up nine Merlin main engines at the bottom of a previously-flown Falcon 9 booster Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, running the rocket through a practice countdown before a scheduled liftoff Jan. 18 with a Crew Dragon capsule to test the human-rated ship’s high-altitude abort capability. The…
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NASA, Boeing aim to deliver first SLS core stage to Kennedy Space Center by this fall
The first fully-assembled core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket rolled out of its factory Wednesday and was loaded in a specially-designed barge for transport to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing. Credit: NASA After years of delays, the core stage for NASA’s first Space Launch System moon rocket rolled out…
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Live coverage: SpaceX prepares for Crew Dragon in-flight abort test
Live coverage of SpaceX’s preparations for the next Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will loft an unpiloted Crew Dragon spacecraft on a high-altitude test of the capsule’s launch abort system. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Credit: Steven Young / Spaceflight…
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SpaceX reschedules crew capsule in-flight abort test for Jan. 18
SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is pictured being prepared for an in-flight abort test inside of a SpaceX processing facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Four of the capsule’s SuperDraco abort thrusters are visible in this image. Credit: SpaceX Credit: SpaceX The final major test of the high-power launch abort engines on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft…
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SpaceX drawing up plans for mobile gantry at launch pad 39A
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Feb. 27, 2020, with artist’s rendering and dimensions of the mobile gantry. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket stands at launch pad 39A before liftoff in June 2019 on the STP-2 mission for the U.S. Air Force. Credit: SpaceX With construction already underway at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A on facilities for SpaceX’s…
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SpaceX poised to accelerate launch cadence with series of Starlink missions
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX teams across the United States are readying for what the company’s chief operating officer predicts will be a record number of launches in 2020. Before the end of January, SpaceX aims to perform four Falcon 9 launches from…
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Solar Orbiter arrives at Kennedy Space Center for launch preps
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft arrived at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility shortly after 9 p.m. EDT Friday (0100 GMT Saturday) after a trans-Atlantic journey from Germany aboard an Antonov An-124 transport plane. Credit: ESA/J. Fiebrich The European-built Solar Orbiter spacecraft arrived in Florida late Friday after a trans-Atlantic journey from a test center…
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NASA’s VIPER rover in development for scouting mission to moon’s south pole
NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is a mobile robot that will roam around the moon’s south pole looking for water ice. Credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter Building on a mission canceled last year, NASA is developing a mobile robot named VIPER for launch in 2022 to scout for water ice at the moon’s…
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X-37B’s return to Cape Canaveral in images
The U.S. Air Force has released an infrared video and additional images from Sunday’s landing of the military’s X-37B spaceplane in Florida after a top secret mission that lasted more than two years. The unpiloted spaceplane touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:51 a.m. EDT (0751…