Tag: SpaceX
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Videos: Previewing SpaceX’s eighth International Space Station resupply launch
Pre-launch news conference What’s aboard the Dragon
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SpaceX gets ready to launch expandable module for NASA to test on space station
An artist’s conception shows the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module attached to the International Space Station. (Credit: Bigelow Aerospace) For the first time, SpaceX is due to launch an entire room to the International Space Station – a room that can go into orbit folded up, and then be expanded like an accordion once it’s hooked up…
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SpaceX adds abort function for Dragon cargo flights
The Dragon spaceship set for liftoff Friday is pictured during launch preparations. Credit: SpaceX Taking a lesson from a launch failure last June, SpaceX wrote coded commands for future Dragon cargo capsules to deploy their parachutes for an emergency landing in the event of rocket explosions, starting with Friday’s resupply flight to the International Space…
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Static fire complete in run-up to launch of SpaceX supply ship
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is pictured inside the hangar at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad before rollout leading up to Tuesday’s static fire test. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX ran a Falcon 9 rocket through a customary preflight checkout Tuesday, filling it with super-cold propellants and firing its nine Merlin first stage engines in preparation for…
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SpaceX conducts Falcon 9 static fire ahead of CRS-8 mission
SpaceX has conducted a crucial static fire of their Falcon 9 rocket ahead of Dragon’s return to flight mission to the International Space Station. The company transported its Falcon 9 rocket for the CRS-8 mission to its seaside launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday for the milestone test ahead of…
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SpaceX hopes to sell used Falcon 9 boosters for as low as $40 million
The Falcon 9 first stage booster recovered after a Dec. 21 launch at Cape Canaveral is seen inside SpaceX’s hangar in Florida. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX intends to cut the price of a Falcon 9 rocket launch by up to 30 percent when flying with reused first stage boosters, an achievement the company still hopes to…
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Pentagon opens investigation into contracts with ULA
File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral with a U.S. Navy communications satellite in January 2015. Credit: ULA The U.S. Defense Department’s internal watchdog has opened a probe into whether the Pentagon’s contracts with United Launch Alliance were properly awarded after a former ULA executive implied the government rigged a recent…
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SpaceX prepares for next two missions via McGregor testing
SpaceX’s rocket stages are deep into their test and processing flows, ahead of two missions currently set to take place in April. Both missions are at opposite ends of their test flows at SpaceX’s test site in McGregor, Texas – with CRS-8 hardware set to depart for Florida while the Falcon 9 first stage tasked…
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SpaceX’s Elon Musk turns the talk from Donald Trump to reaching Mars by 2025
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shows President Barack Obama around the company’s Cape Canaveral rocket processing site in 2010. (Credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA) SpaceX’s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, has had to bat down all sorts of reports about political associations over the past couple of weeks – and the strategy that seems to work the best…
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SNC handover 11 OG2 satellites following in-orbit checkouts
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed all in-orbit checkout procedures for the final 11 satellites in the ORBCOMM Generation 2 (OG2) constellation. The fleet of satellites were successfully launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket during her return to flight mission at the end of 2015. OG2: The satellites were designed and built…