Tag: Space
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Polaris Dawn takes to the skies, setting the stage for a daring private spacewalk
A Falcon 9 rocket streaked into the black predawn sky above Florida on Tuesday, carrying four people on the most ambitious private human spaceflight to date. The crew of the Polaris Dawn mission, led by a billionaire pilot named Jared Isaacman, were injected into an orbit intended to reach an apogee of 1,200 km and…
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Faced with a tight deadline, NASA and Blue Origin agree to delay New Glenn debut
NASA and Blue Origin announced Friday that they have agreed to delay the launch of the ESCAPADE mission to Mars until at least the spring of 2025. The decision to stand down from a launch attempt in mid-October was driven by a deadline to begin loading hypergolic propellant on the two small ESCAPADE (Escape and…
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Rocket Report: Falcon 9 lifts its 7,000th Starlink; ABL cuts deep
Welcome to Edition 7.10 of the Rocket Report! It has been a big week for seeing new hardware from Blue Origin. We’ve observed the second stage of New Glenn rolling out to its launch pad in Florida, and the rocket’s first stage recovery ship, Jacklyn, arriving at a nearby port. It looks like the pieces…
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Artificial intelligence is going full circle — from fiction to science, and back again
A teenager is left in charge of a Mars base in one of “The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories.” (Illustration by Maurizio Manzieri / Infinivox) Artificial intelligence has had an effect on nearly every facet of modern life — ranging from diagnosing diseases, to applying for a job, to deciding which movie to watch. Now it’s reaching…
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The New Glenn rocket’s second stage set to roll to the launch pad on Monday
Blue Origin plans to enter the final phase of its launch preparations for the New Glenn rocket on Monday by rolling the vehicle’s second stage to Launch Complex 36 in Florida. Pending weather and other final considerations, a rollout could occur as early as Monday afternoon. This is the flight version of the vehicle, with…
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NASA makes a very tough decision in setting final Crew-9 assignments
On Friday NASA publicly announced a decision that has roiled the top levels of the agency’s human spaceflight program for several weeks. The space agency named the two crew members who will launch on a Crew Dragon mission set to lift off no earlier than September 24 to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Nick…
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For the first time in more than three years, SpaceX misses a booster landing
Early on Wednesday morning, at 3:48 am ET local time, a Falcon 9 rocket booster making its 23rd launch took off from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission successfully delivered 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 of the larger vehicles with direct-to-cell capabilities, before attempting a landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas.…
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One of the most adventurous human spaceflights since Apollo may launch tonight
SpaceX is set to launch the 14th crewed flight on its Dragon spacecraft early on Tuesday morning—and it’s an intriguing one. This Polaris Dawn mission, helmed and funded by an entrepreneur and billionaire named Jared Isaacman, is scheduled to lift off at 3:38 am ET (07:38 UTC) on Tuesday from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy…
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NASA not comfortable with Starliner thrusters, so crew will fly home on Dragon
Following weeks of speculation, NASA finally made it official on Saturday: Two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June will not return home on that vehicle. Instead, the agency has asked SpaceX to use its Crew Dragon spacecraft to fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to…
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Rocket Report: A ULA sale tidbit; Polaris Dawn mission is on deck
Welcome to Edition 7.08 of the Rocket Report! Lots of news as always, but what I’m most interested in is the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission. If all goes as planned, the flight will break all sorts of ground for commercial spaceflight, including the first-ever private spacewalk. Best of luck to Jared Isaacman and…