Tag: Space Shuttle
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SpaceX breaks Space Shuttle pad record with Falcon 9 Starlink mission
SpaceX launches its 74th Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. This mission, combined with the preceding Falcon 9 launches and the nine Falcon Heavy flights, allowed SpaceX to surpass the total number of Space Shuttle launches from this pad. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 3:14 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed…
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Hubble still going strong 30 years after launch
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, one day after its launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA Thirty years ago Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the shuttle Discovery with a famously flawed mirror, the opening…
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Former astronaut Bruce McCandless dies
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Official portrait showing astronaut Bruce McCandless II, attired in the shuttle Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit with Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) attached and American flag in background. Credit: NASA Former astronaut Bruce McCandless II, a retired Navy captain and son of a Medal of Honor winner who joined NASA…
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Shuttle-era structure dismantled piece-by-piece at pad 39A
Credit: Spaceflight Now A heavy-duty crane towering over launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in recent weeks has removed several large sections of a disused structure once needed to install satellites and space station modules into space shuttle cargo bays. A demolition crew hired by SpaceX, the launch pad’s current tenant, has plucked…
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Twin solid rockets, reused veterans of spaceflight, set for Endeavour display
File photo of two shuttle solid rocket boosters. Credit: NASA CAPE CANAVERAL — Two space shuttle solid rocket boosters — reusable space hardware that launched on 81 missions — are being gifted to the California Science Center to become part of the museum’s launch pad display of Endeavour. Made by Orbital ATK, the twin boosters…
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Last shuttle commander ‘back in the fight’ with Boeing
When Chris Ferguson climbed into the commander’s seat of the shuttle Atlantis five years ago Friday for the spaceship’s final flight, he didn’t know what turn his career would take when he returned to Earth. Like many space shuttle workers, Ferguson had to decide what to do next. Atlantis’ final flight, which lifted off July…
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STS-135 video: ‘Poetry in motion’
Watch the shuttle Atlantis’ backflip, which occurred five years ago today, before docking to the International Space Station. The rendezvous pitch maneuver — the 360-degree flip — enabled the space station’s crew to photograph Atlantis’ belly with handheld digital cameras equipped with 400- and 800-millimeter lenses as part of post-launch inspections of the heat shield.…
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Parade moves last shuttle fuel tank to museum for Endeavour display
The external tank crosses the 405 Freeway. Photo by Gene Blevins/LA Daily News A spectacle never seen before — a space shuttle external fuel tank traversing city streets — was witnessed in Los Angeles today as the relic was moved to the museum that will construct a rocket science attraction. See a full gallery of…
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Photos: Final space shuttle fuel tank moves through Los Angeles to museum
A last-of-its-kind piece of space hardware — the only remaining shuttle external fuel tank — is making its way along the city streets of Los Angeles today. External Tank No. 94 is headed from Marina del Rey on the Pacific Coast, where it arrived by barge on Wednesday, to the California Science Center at Exposition…
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Shuttle fuel tank comes ashore in California for Endeavour museum exhibit
Photo by Gene Blevins/LA Daily News A five-week, 5,000-mile sea trek of the last space shuttle external fuel tank pulled into port today for a parade through the urban jungle of Southern California on Saturday to its final destination. Originally built for a shuttle mission but never flown, the last-of-its-kind tank was donated to the…