SpaceX launched 58 new Starlink satellites on its Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday morning, and three satellites from Planet tagged along for the ride. The SpaceX satellites are part of its growing Starlink constellation, which it’s building to provide internet connectivity on Earth. The company has permission to launch some 12,000 satellites as part of […]
NASA has confirmed that the James Webb Space Telescope won’t be ready in time for its scheduled March 2021 launch. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said in a Thursday meeting of the Space Studies Board of the National Academies that COVID-19 has caused work to fall behind schedule. “We will not launch in […]
This morning, SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station, bringing the company’s first crew to the orbiting outpost. Their arrival marks another major milestone for SpaceX’s first crewed mission of the Crew Dragon, which successfully took off yesterday, May 30th, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley […]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying two veteran NASA astronauts lifted off on Saturday on a historic first private crewed flight into space. The two-stage SpaceX rocket with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard blasted off smoothly in a cloud of orange flames and smoke from Launch Pad 39A at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center […]
SpaceX and NASA decided the risk to equipment posed by thunderstorms over the Falcon Rocket 9’s Cape Canaveral site was too great. Officials said that if the launch could have waited ten minutes after countdown, a take-off would have been possible. The Demo-2 mission is now set to take place this Saturday, May 30, at […]
The historic launch that would take NASA astronauts to the ISS from US soil has been cleared for launch next week despite the coronavirus pandemic and the departure of the agency’s human spaceflight lead. It’ll be the first time astronauts will take off from the US since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011, when […]
NASA is working with Tom Cruise to film the first movie shot in space, according to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. The details of the project aren’t clear, but Bridenstine says the film will take place aboard the International Space Station. The story comes from Deadline, which insists the incredible claim is real. The project is […]
Virgin Galactic’s space tourism has flown SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America for the first time. It was just a glide test from 50,000 feet up, but the flight let the spaceport fulfill its intended purpose and gave pilots familiarity with the New Mexico airspace. This will also help Virgin compare performance against similar maneuvers from earlier […]
SpaceX and Amazon’s Blue Origin received some very positive news today. NASA has awarded both corporations lucrative contracts in exchange for their promise to design and develop human landing systems for the space agency’s “Artemis” program.As part of the program, one of these human landing systems (HLS) will be used to deliver the “first woman […]
The ongoing Covid-19 outbreak has forced millions of us to work home. The same is true for the team monitoring and controlling NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover as the space agency has sent many of its employees home to help combat the spread of the virus. NASA saw the move coming in advance and planned for […]
SpaceX and NASA are finally ready to take a major leap forward in the space industry. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon rocket has had its fair share of troubles over time, but it’s finally stable enough to launch two astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) up to the International Space Station. It won’t be a long trip, […]
It was 50 years ago Monday (April 13) that the Apollo 13 crew famously told NASA: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” You can celebrate the “successful failure” with a NASA documentary and other activities online. On April 13, 1970, three astronauts on their way to the moon experienced an explosion in the service module of […]
NASA has selected SpaceX to deliver supplies to the planned Gateway mini-space station in lunar orbit using a new version of the Dragon cargo vehicle launched atop Falcon Heavy rockets. SpaceX is guaranteed a minimum of two supply missions under the Gateway Logistics Services contract. The cost of each SpaceX cargo mission was not disclosed […]
SpaceX aborted the launch of 60 new Starlink satellites at the last second due to an engine power issue with the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 rocket’s onboard computer triggered an abort just before a scheduled 9:22 a.m. EDT liftoff after detecting an issue with one of its nine Merlin 1D engines. The […]
Late last night, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 20th cargo mission to the International Space Station, sending more than 4,500 pounds of supplies and science experiments to the three crew members living in orbit. While it was a fairly routine launch for the company, it was also a significant one: […]