News – Page 132 – Spaceflight Now

NASA taps Draper for first U.S. landing on far side of the moon

July 29, 2022 Stephen Clark

NASA has awarded Draper a $73 million contract to deliver science instruments to the far side of the moon on a commercial robotic lander in 2025, the eighth award through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Officials with the companies flying the first two CLPS missions, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, said recently their commercial landers are scheduled to launch late this year or early next year.

OneWeb to merge with Eutelsat, needs five more launches to complete network

July 26, 2022 Stephen Clark

OneWeb and Eutelsat announced plans to merge Tuesday, bringing together OneWeb’s network of internet satellites in low Earth orbit with Eutelsat’s fleet of larger video, data relay, and broadband platforms in geostationary orbit. OneWeb says it is on track to resume deploying its remaining internet satellites as soon as September, with three SpaceX flights and two Indian launches on tap to replace Russian Soyuz rockets no longer available after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia says it will pull out of space station project after 2024

July 26, 2022 William Harwood

Russia will pull out of the International Space Station project after 2024, the new director of the Russian space program said Tuesday, but no firm dates or plans were revealed and it was not immediately clear what, if anything, might change in the near term.

SpaceX’s next crew launch delayed by booster damage

July 25, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX and NASA have delayed the launch of the next U.S. crew flight to the International Space Station from early September to no earlier than Sept. 29, allowing time for ground teams to replace an interstage on the mission’s new Falcon 9 booster after it was damaged during transport.

Wentian science module docks with China’s space station

July 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

China’s Tiangong space station received a new room Sunday with the docking of the Wentian laboratory module, a half-day after launching on a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket. The three-person crew on the Chinese space station later opened hatches and floated inside the new science module for the first time.

SpaceX launches sixth mission in 17 days

July 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

Continuing a record-breaking launch cadence, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 rocket aloft Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 53 more satellites for the company’s Starlink internet network, the sixth Falcon 9 launch in 17 days and 33rd overall this year.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Florida on another Starlink mission

July 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX sent another cluster of 53 Starlink internet satellites into orbit Sunday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s 33rd mission of the year and sixth launch of July. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 9:38 a.m. EDT (1338 GMT). The Falcon 9 booster landed on SpaceX’s drone ship parked downrange in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral.

New science lab for China’s space station launches on Long March 5B rocket

July 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

China’s heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket launched Sunday with the second major element of the Chinese Tiangong space station, sending the 25-ton Wentian science module on course for docking at the orbiting outpost.

SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 rocket for Sunday launch from Florida

July 23, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Saturday in preparation for liftoff Sunday with the company’s next batch of 53 Starlink internet satellites. Test-firings on the launch pad were once a customary part of every SpaceX launch campaign, but the company is phasing out the static fire tests for most missions as the Falcon 9 launch cadence has ramped up to an average of one flight per week

SpaceX launches 32nd mission of the year, breaking record set in 2021

July 22, 2022 Stephen Clark

With 2022 barely half over, SpaceX launched its 32nd mission of the year Friday from California’s Central Coast, breaking the company’s record for most launches in a year and delivering 46 more Starlink internet satellites into polar orbit to provide global broadband service.