Tag: CRS
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Station-bound cargo ship shown to press before launch
The Orbital ATK’s Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft, named the SS Deke Slayton II, is packed up and poised for launch to the International Space Station. Engineers showed the vessel to local reporters and photographers at the Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Friday. It will be encapsulated in the Atlas 5 rocket’s 14-foot…
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Stacking starts for Atlas 5 cargo run to space station with Cygnus
The mission poster. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — United Launch Alliance today began stacking its first Atlas 5 rocket to fly in service to the International Space Station, a commercial mission to send supplies to the orbiting complex. This launch, planned for Dec. 3, and another targeted for March 10, are precursors to the much…
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Dream Chaser still fighting for her place in space
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spaceplane is still holding on to the hope of flying missions for NASA despite losing out on the role of a Commercial Crew carrier for the Agency. Although little information has been heard about the future of the spacecraft of late, SNC is hoping to win favor from NASA in…
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SpaceX conducts additional Falcon 9 improvements ahead of busy schedule
SpaceX engineers are busily processing the Falcon 9 fleet for a salvo of missions that will mark the company’s return from the CRS-7 failure. The replacement of helium bottle support struts – one of which is suspected to have caused the CRS-7 mishap in June – is being conducted alongside additional changes, as SpaceX prepare…
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Enhanced Cygnus to help Orbital ATK meet CRS contract by 2017
The first flight of Orbital ATK’s Enhanced Cygnus resupply craft for the International Space Station is set to launch in December atop an Atlas V rocket. Helping Orbital ATK return to flight operations, the Enhanced Cygnus spacecraft will allow the company to meet their initial CRS cargo up-mass contract with NASA in just four more missions. Enhanced Cygnus: December’s upcoming…
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Cygnus set for December Atlas V ride ahead of Antares return
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft is set to return to International Space Station (ISS) resupply duties in December, hitching a ride on an Atlas V, prior to resuming operations with the modified Antares rocket in 2016. Cygnus has been out of action since the CRS-3/OrB-3 failure that occurred in October 2014 – with the full investigation…
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Saving Spaceship Dragon – Software to provide contingency chute deploy
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk has ordered the installation of contingency abort software into all future Dragon cargo spacecraft, providing them with an option to deploy their parachutes after an off-nominal launch scenario. Such software may have allowed the CRS-7 Dragon to save herself after she was thrown free of the failing Falcon…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 failure investigation focuses on COPV struts
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk has updated the status of the investigation into the failure of the Falcon 9 rocket during its ill-fated CRS-7 Dragon mission. The preliminary findings point to a support strut in the Second Stage LOX tank breaking, releasing a helium pressurization bottle (Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel) that began the…
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SpaceX working toward Falcon 9 diagnosis ahead of treatment
SpaceX is deep into an internal mishap investigation following the loss during First Stage flight of a Falcon 9 rocket with the CRS-7 Dragon. While the Second Stage is considered to be the main culprit for the failure, investigators are currently gathering data to reconstruct the final moments of Falcon 9’s flight as recovery teams attempt to retrieve the rocket’s remains to further aid…
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fails during launch following second stage issue
SpaceX launched its eighth Dragon resupply mission, on a flight that was scheduled to loft cargo to the International Space Station – along with a docking adaptor for future manned missions. However, the launch failed just over two minutes into the ascent from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:21 local time (14:21 UTC),…