Tag: Sierra Nevada

  • SpaceX eyes Dec. 19 for first launch since June

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    File photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is targeting Dec. 19 for a critical commercial launch that will double as the debut flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket and the company’s return-to-flight mission after a failure six months ago halted SpaceX’s busy launch manifest. Final preparations are underway inside SpaceX’s rocket…

  • SpaceX aims to resume Falcon 9 flights in mid-December

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    File photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket before launch of its first mission for Orbcomm in July 2014. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has shipped to Cape Canaveral the first Falcon 9 booster equipped with upgrades to haul heavier cargoes to orbit, aiming for a mid-December launch in the space transport company’s first mission since a June…

  • Planning for December Falcon 9 launch, Orbcomm ships satellites

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    Orbcomm’s 11 second-generation OG2 satellites are pictured inside Sierra Nevada’s factory in Louisville, Colorado. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp. The first shipment of Orbcomm’s 11-satellite payload for the Falcon 9 rocket’s first flight since a June launch failure has arrived at Cape Canaveral, and the rest of the spacecraft will reach the Florida spaceport in the…

  • Orbcomm first in Falcon 9’s return-to-flight launch queue

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    File photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket before launching six Orbcomm satellites in 2014. Credit: SpaceX Going with a philosophy that favors incremental testing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX officials said Friday that eleven mini-satellites for Orbcomm’s data relay business will fly on the company’s first mission since a launch…

  • Sierra Nevada on watch for critical cargo award

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    Sierra Nevada Corp. technicians prepare the Dream Chaser engineering test article for another round of atmospheric flight tests. Credit: Sierra Nevada A prototype of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane is nearing shipment to California’s Mojave Desert to resume runway landing tests as officials wait for word from NASA whether the company will win a…

  • Decision on new space station cargo contracts deferred

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    SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft arrives at the International Space Station on April 17 for its sixth operational cargo delivery. Credit: ESA/NASA NASA expects to select commercial contractors to resupply the International Space Station in September, three months later than the agency’s previous timetable under a competition for cargo deliveries beginning in 2018. NASA was scheduled to…

  • SpaceX, Sierra Nevada get more time to finish flight tests

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    The Dragon capsule for SpaceX’s pad abort test seen inside a test chamber. Credit: SpaceX NASA has extended development agreements with SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. past a March 31 deadline, giving the companies more time to complete delayed tests on commercial spacecraft intended to one day ferry astronauts into space. The extensions do not…

  • Sierra Nevada proposes all-in-one solution for ISS resupply

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    Artist’s concept of the Dream Chaser cargo carrier at the International Space Station. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp. Leveraging progress made to build a human-rated space plane for NASA’s commercial crew program, Sierra Nevada Corp. said this week it has offered a cargo-carrying version of the Dream Chaser spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station beginning…

  • NASA outlines why it passed over Sierra Nevada

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    A prototype of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane conducted a taxi and approach and landing test campaign in 2013 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Another landing test is planned for March. Credit: NASA NASA cited the complexity of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane and an uncertainty of when the proposed crew transport…

  • GAO reaffirms NASA’s commercial crew decision

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    Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft (left) and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule (right) will carry U.S. astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station. Credit: Boeing/SpaceX/Spaceflight Now The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corp. challenging NASA’s selection of competitors Boeing and SpaceX to build commercial human-rated space capsules to fly astronauts…