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Fresh crew takes off for six-month stay aboard space station
Strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Crew 13 commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT.
VideoRoman Space Telescope, NASA’s next ‘great observatory,’ launched
Using a donated Hubble-class mirror originally built for a spy satellite, NASA's Roman Space Telescope launched Sunday on a $4.3 billion mission to open a new window on the universe. Liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy came at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 UTC).
Super Heavy-Starship rocket chalks up mostly successful test flight
Powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, the 407-foot-tall two-stage rocket blasted off from SpaceX's "Starbase," Texas, launch site at 5:51 p.m. EDT, putting on a spectacular show for area residents and tourists as it climbed away atop some 16 million pounds of thrust.
Musk praises “epic” Super Heavy-Starship launch
The Starship upper stage was equipped with six third-generation Raptor engines and one of three optimized for operating in vacuum shut down early during the climb to space. The flight computer kept the other five engines running longer than originally planned to make up for the shortfall, putting the craft on an acceptable sub-orbital trajectory.
NASA inspector general assesses agency’s management of moon lander risk
NASA's Office of Inspector General said that while NASA is working to "mitigate and prevent hazards" associated with lunar landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin, "there are currently gaps in the agency's approach, including in its testing posture and crew survival analyses," including what might happen after a catastrophic but non-fatal event.
Replacement crew docks at space station, boosts crew back to seven
The Crew Dragon docked at the space-facing port of the lab's forward Harmony module at 3:15 p.m. EST, 34 hours after launch Friday from the Kennedy Space Center atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX successfully launches Super Heavy-Starship on critical test flight
While re-entry heating damaged a protective "skirt" around the the engine bay of the upper stage Starship, along with partially melting a control flap near its hinge, the vehicle remained under control throughout and made it all the way to a powered splashdown in the Indian Ocean as planned.
Crew 10 returns to Earth with Pacific Ocean splashdown
Two NASA astronauts, a Japanese flier and a Russian cosmonaut plunged back to Earth Saturday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego to wrap up a five-month mission.
NASA probes to study how the solar wind triggers potentially dangerous ‘space weather’
SpaceX launched twin satellites for NASA Wednesday that will study how the electrically-charged solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic field, creating constantly changing and occasionally dangerous "space weather" affecting satellites, electrical grids and other critical systems.
Commercial crew blasts off on privately-funded space station research mission
Strapped into a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule making its maiden flight, Whitson, test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, European Space Agency astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu roared away from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:31 a.m. EDT.