Tag: SpaceX
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Dragon 2 conducts Pad Abort leap in key SpaceX test
SpaceX’s Dragon 2 test vehicle has conducted her maiden flight on Wednesday, leaping off a Cape Canaveral truss structure under the power of eight SuperDraco engines at 9am local time. Known as the Pad Abort test, the objectives of the flight involved the gathering of key test data to help graduate the vehicle to be…
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Don’t blink: SpaceX crew escape demo will go by in a flash
SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned test model of the company’s Dragon crew capsule Wednesday on a whirlwind 107-second flight through the skies over Cape Canaveral. The 8-ton prototype spaceship will only reach a mile an altitude, but the trial aims to verify the Dragon capsule can safely escape from a launch failure and save…
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How to watch SpaceX test its Dragon capsule launch abort system
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was on display in Seattle earlier this year. SpaceX is running another space travel test on Wednesday, this time to make sure its abort procedures are working properly. For the first time, the Elon Musk-led company will test an eject button for astronauts who will travel in SpaceX’s Dragon 2 capsule. In order to get astronauts away…
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Photos: Dragon prototype poised for abort test
SpaceX’s new Dragon crew ferry craft is in position for a key test Wednesday of the capsule’s safety system designed to whisk astronauts away from a dangerous rocket mishap during launch. Standing roughly 20 feet tall with a takeoff weight of approximately 10.5 tons, the Dragon capsule is a prototype of the spaceship SpaceX is…
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SpaceX preps for test of Dragon capsule’s life-saving abort system
SpaceX ground crews transfer the Dragon pad abort vehicle to the launch pad. Credit: SpaceX A commercial spaceship designed to ferry U.S. astronauts into orbit by 2017 is set for a major test Wednesday, when SpaceX plans to blast the capsule away from a launch mount at Cape Canaveral on a mile-high demo flight to…
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Blue Origin spaceship makes first test flight, with founder Jeff Bezos in the control room
Jeff Bezos in the control room, as seen in a Blue Origin video. Blue Origin, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space venture, launched the first developmental test flight of its New Shepard spacecraft in West Texas on Thursday. Bezos himself was on hand for the occasion, making a cameo appearance in this video, first in the…
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Photos: Falcon 9 rockets into dusky sky
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral on Monday after a 49-minute weather hold to wait for clouds to thin out overhead. The rocket finally lifted off into an overcast sky with a communications satellite built for Turkmenistan at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT). Photo credit: SpaceX Photo credit: SpaceX Photo credit: SpaceX Photo…
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Falcon 9 rocket powers into space with satellite for Turkmenistan
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) after a 49-minute weather delay. Credit: SpaceX A communications satellite for Turkmenistan soared into orbit Monday, climbing through gloomy skies over Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to give the Central Asian nation its first foothold in space. After waiting 49…
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Turkmenistan’s first satellite braced for liftoff
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with Turkmenistan’s first satellite rolls out to Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Sunday. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX ground crews transferred a Falcon 9 rocket to its seaside launch mount at Cape Canaveral on Sunday evening in preparation for liftoff Monday with Turkmenistan’s first satellite. Liftoff is set for 6:14 p.m. EDT…
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Live coverage: SpaceX launches its fifth Falcon 9 flight of the year
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the TurkmenAlem52E/MonacoSat communications satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.