The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was rolled out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 on Wednesday morning, emerging from the Vertical Integration Facility assembly hangar where the two-stage rocket was put together.
Credit:
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was rolled out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 on Wednesday morning, emerging from the Vertical Integration Facility assembly hangar where the two-stage rocket was put together.
Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
SpaceX is eligible to propose using its next-generation Starship vehicle to carry NASA robotic science payloads to the lunar surface, the U.S. space agency announced Monday, on missions that could precede future Starship flights with people on-board. SpaceX is one of five companies NASA selected Monday to join a roster of commercial transportation providers to deliver scientific instruments and technology demonstration packages to the moon as soon as 2022.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said this weekend that the company is about one month away from launching the first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, a precursor to a demonstration launch with astronauts later this year. He also warned that early test flights of the commercial crew capsule, built under contract to NASA, will be “especially dangerous.”
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