Tag: space
NASA suspends work on its Moon and Mars spacecraft due to coronavirus pandemic
NASA has temporarily paused work on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule that will be used for its forthcoming Artemis missions, which will ultimately return the next American man and the first American woman to the surface of the Moon. The rocket and spacecraft were undergoing production and…
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NASA and SpaceX targeting mid-to-late May for first astronaut launch, despite coronavirus pandemic
NASA and SpaceX issued a media accreditation invitation on Wednesday for their Demonstration Mission 2 (aka Demo-2) commercial crew launch – the first in the commercial crew program that will carry actual astronauts to space. The invite includes the current proposed timeframe for the mission, listed as no “no earlier…
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SpaceX’s latest Starlink launch included an unforeseen engine issue
While successful in its primary mission, the latest SpaceX launch wasn’t without unexpected issues: The secondary mission of recovering the Falcon 9 booster with a controlled landing failed, for the second launch in a row, and SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk also confirmed that one of the rocket’s engines…
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SpaceX breaks a Falcon 9 rocket re-use record with successful Starlink launch
SpaceX has successfully launched and deployed its sixth batch of 60 Starlink satellites, further growing its constellation for the internet broadband system it plans to launch for customers starting later this year in the U.S. and Canada. This brings SpaceX’s total Starlink constellation size to 360 spacecraft, extending the company’s…
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Watch SpaceX launch 60 more Starlink satellites and attempt a Falcon 9 re-use record
[embedded content] SpaceX is launching its latest Starlink mission today, with a takeoff time of 8:16 AM EDT (5:16 AM PDT) currently scheduled to take place at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch will carry 60 more Starlink broadband internet satellites to their low Earth orbit destination, using a…
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Rocket Lab gets NASA certification for official smallsat launches
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has received Category 1 certification from NASA, meaning it is authorized for use on more important missions, opening up a whole new revenue stream for the growing launch provider. The certification was largely based on the success of “This One’s for Pickering” in late 2018,…
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