Tag: SpaceX
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Days before landmark launch, NASA’s head of human spaceflight quits due to ‘mistake’
Doug Loverro speaks at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana shortly after taking his place as the space agency’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations in 2019. (NASA Photo via Twitter) NASA’s top executive concentrating on human spaceflight, Doug Loverro, has resigned just a week before the scheduled start of a milestone space mission.…
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SpaceX readies rocket for final Falcon 9 launch before crew flight
SpaceX test-fires a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Credit: William Harwood/CBS News SpaceX fired up a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Wednesday in a pre-flight test for a Starlink satellite launch Sunday, moving closer to the company’s final mission before sending two NASA astronauts into orbit for the…
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Planet Labs SkySats to rideshare with SpaceX Starlink launches
Planet Labs Inc. has announced they will launch six SkySat satellites, SkySats 16-21, on Falcon 9 rockets as rideshare missions on two Starlink launches. These six satellites will help provide Planet with more imaging coverage to complement the 15 other SkySat satellites, SkySat 1-15, in Sun-Synchronous Orbits (SSO). (Lead Image: Julia Bergeron, NSF) Over the…
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SpaceX test-fires Raptor engine on Starship test rocket
Video credit: SPadre / YouTube A test-firing of a Raptor engine on the latest in a series of Starship test rockets Tuesday night in Texas moved SpaceX closer to performing a low-altitude “hop” to gather data on the vehicle’s launch and landing characteristics. The single methane-fueled Raptor engine on the bottom of the Starship…
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NASA working with Tom Cruise to film movie on the International Space Station
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.” Credit: Paramount Pictures NASA said Tuesday it is working with Tom Cruise to film a movie on the International Space Station, but details on the arrangements are scarce. The news that Cruise was in talks with to shoot an action-adventure film on the space station was first reported Monday…
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NASA confirms it’s working with Tom Cruise (and SpaceX?) to make a movie on space station
Tom Cruise played a drone repairman who turned into an action hero in the 2013 sci-fi movie “Oblivion.” (Universal Pictures) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has confirmed in a tweet that the space agency is working with movie star Tom Cruise on a project that involves shooting a film on the International Space Station. Deadline Hollywood…
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NASA, SpaceX enters the critical month of May on track to end the gap
With the news SpaceX completed the 27th and the final test of the upgraded Mark-3 parachutes for the Crew Dragon spacecraft on the day of a series of flagship news conferences, there is growing excitement ahead of the return to US domestic crew launch capability as soon as the end of this month. SpaceX’s Demonstration…
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NASA and SpaceX get set to make history with landmark spaceflight during pandemic
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley participate in an integrated SpaceX test of critical crew flight hardware in March, in preparation for this month’s scheduled launch to the International Space Station in a Crew Dragon capsule. (SpaceX Photo) Everything is in readiness for the first mission to send humans into orbit from U.S. soil…
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NASA identifies risks in SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander proposal
Artist’s illustration of SpaceX’s Starship on the lunar surface. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s proposal to land astronauts on the moon using the company’s reusable Starship vehicle could be “game-changing” for space exploration, but comes with risks and complexity that “threaten the schedule viability” to achieve NASA’s goal of returning crews moon by the end of 2024,…
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NASA puts Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX on the list for lunar lander development program
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, equipped with an ascent module built by Lockheed Martin. (Blue Origin Illustration via NASA) NASA has selected teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to develop lunar landing systems capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024. “We want to be…