Tag: SpaceX
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NASA spells out support for SpaceX’s Red Dragon Mars mission
Artist’s concept of SpaceX’s Red Dragon spacecraft entering the Martian atmosphere. Credit: SpaceX If SpaceX is able to dispatch a robotic Dragon capsule to land on the red planet in 2018 on time and successfully, engineers stand to get a lesson on what it will take to eventually send humans there, capturing key data on…
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SpaceX fires previously-flown rocket in major stride toward reusability
Throttling up to more than a million pounds of thrust at SpaceX’s Central Texas test facility, a Falcon 9 rocket booster recovered after a commercial satellite launch in May passed a key milestone Thursday as the company sets its sights on re-flying a used first stage on a mission this fall. Nine Merlin 1D engines…
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SpaceX test fires returned Falcon 9 booster at McGregor
A returned Falcon 9 first stage has been test fired at SpaceX’s McGregor test center, in what is the start of a series of firings. As of late August, several firings have taken place. F9-S1-0024 returned home after helping push JCSAT-14 uphill earlier this year, prior to landing on the ASDS located in the Atlantic…
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Video: Two cargo freighters arrive at space station just days apart
The Russian Progress 64P autonomous cargo ship docks to the International Space Station on July 18 to deliver 5,300 pounds of fuel, water and supplies to the orbital complex. It was launched July 16 atop a Soyuz booster. The commercial SpaceX Dragon CRS 9 vessel is captured by the International Space Station’s robotic arm and…
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SpaceX Dragon cargo ship delivers DNA sequencer and new door to space station
SpaceX’s Dragon is firmly in the grip of the International Space Station’s robotic arm during the berthing operation. (Credit: NASA TV) Two days after its launch, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule was pulled in for its hookup to the International Space Station today as the spacecraft soared 252 miles above the California-Oregon state line. Among the nearly…
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CRS-9 Dragon completes journey to the Space Station
After just over two days of orbital rendezvous activities, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has completed rendezvous and proximity operations with the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of being grappled by the Station’s robotic arm and berthed to the orbital outpost. Capture occurred 06:56 EDT, with berthing complete at 10:03 EDT. Dragon’s rendezvous with Station: Immediately after…
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Blue Origin and SpaceX vets raise cash for Relativity Space, a stealthy startup aiming to build rockets ‘with zero human labor’
Two engineers with experience at Blue Origin and SpaceX have raised almost $10 million for their own rocket startup, Relativity Space, which promises to build orbital rockets “with zero human labor.” The funding rounds are described in two documents filed in May and this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The first filing reports that $1.1…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 lofts CRS-9 Dragon launch and achieves LZ-1 landing
SpaceX has launched its Falcon 9 rocket early on Monday, carrying the CRS-9 Dragon spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS) with a cargo of supplies for the outpost and a docking adaptor for future manned missions. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral occurred at 00:44 local time (04:44 UTC), with a successful landing at LZ-1…
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SpaceX rocket sends cargo ship to space station, then returns to land
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad. (Credit: NASA) SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station tonight with a couple of precedent-setting payloads on opposite ends of the size spectrum: a 5-foot-wide docking adapter, which was built by Boeing to accommodate future commercial space taxis; and the first…
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Photos: Falcon 9 rocket lifted vertical for cargo launch
SpaceX installed time-sensitive cargo into the pressurized cabin of a Dragon resupply capsule Sunday in the final hours before liftoff with nearly 2.5 tons of experiments and a critical docking system to welcome piloted commercial spaceships to the International Space Station. Using a pristine, climate-controlled access port, SpaceX technicians added the “late load” cargo into…