Month: September 2017
Live coverage: Falcon 9 blasts off with X-37B mini-shuttle
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B mini-shuttle, an unpiloted orbiting military laboratory. Liftoff occurred at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), and the Falcon 9’s first stage booster successfully landed at Cape Canaveral a few minutes later.
SpaceX readies rocket to launch military spaceplane into orbit
With an eye on dangerous Hurricane Irma’s forecast path toward Florida, SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force are proceeding with preparations to launch an unpiloted reusable military spaceship Thursday on a mission to conduct experiments in orbit, deploy multiple small satellites and glide back to Earth for a runway landing after months or years in space.
Photos: Soyuz MS-04 capsule lands in Kazakhstan
Three space station crew members came back to Earth last weekend aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule after plunging through the atmosphere and descending under a parachute to a jarring touchdown on the steppes of Kazakhstan. These photos show the capsule’s final descent and the crew’s exit from the spacecraft.