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Hopeful for launch next year, NASA aims to resume SLS operations within weeks
With the Space Launch System's inaugural test flight now officially delayed to November 2021, NASA says work halted by the coronavirus pandemic will resume within weeks to prepare for the first test-firing of the SLS core stage at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
NASA identifies risks in SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander proposal
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, agency officials said.
Companies release new details on human-rated lunar lander concepts
The next time astronauts land on the moon, they will ride to the lunar surface in a spacecraft that looks a lot different than the Apollo-era landing module last used in 1972. Lander concepts proposed by SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics -- which won a combined $967 million in NASA funding Thursday -- take wildly different approaches to carrying crews to the moon.
Blue Origin wins lion’s share of NASA funding for human-rated lunar lander
NASA has selected Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to move forward with development of human-rated lunar landers, committing nearly $1 billion in funding for a range of moonship concepts that include a variant of SpaceX's next-generation Starship vehicle, officials announced Thursday.
SpaceX to debut satellite-dimming sunshade on Starlink launch next month
A new sunshade, or visor, designed to reduce the brightness of SpaceX's Starlink broadband Internet satellites will debut on the company's next launch, a measure intended to alleviate astronomers' concerns about impacts on observations through ground-based telescopes, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday.
Starship prototype clears cryogenic pressure test
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said a prototype for the company's planned Starship launch vehicle passed a cryogenic proof test Sunday night in South Texas, clearing the way for teams to install a Raptor engine this week for a test-firing.
Soyuz launches from Kazakhstan with space station supply ship
A Soyuz rocket decorated to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe fired into space Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending a Progress supply ship on a fast-track, three-hour pursuit of the International Space Station.
Citing coronavirus, NASA urges public not to travel for launch of astronauts
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Thursday urged space enthusiasts not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center next month to view the first launch of astronauts from the Florida spaceport since 2011, and asked people to instead watch the launch on television or online.
VideoRussian resupply freighter poised for launch to International Space Station
Continuing support of the International Space Station amid the coronavirus pandemic, Russian teams transferred a Soyuz rocket to a launch pad in Kazakhstan on Wednesday in preparation for liftoff with a Progress resupply freighter.
Photos: Space station crew back on Earth
A scaled-down team of technicians and medical personnel -- wearing facial masks as a precaution against the global coronavirus pandemic -- met a three-person space station crew on the steppes of Kazakhstan Friday after their landing aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.