News Archive
Browse every article published on Spaceflight Now, from launch reports and mission previews to spacecraft development coverage. Use the filters to narrow by topic or search by keyword.
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Bigelow announces plans for private astronaut flights to space station
Bigelow Space Operations says it will charge $52 million per seat to send private astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon ferry ships, and has already paid "substantial sums" to SpaceX for up to four dedicated crew missions to the orbiting research complex.
Dragon capsule returns to Earth from space station with 2.1 tons of cargo
Closing out a 30-day mission, a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule departed the International Space Station on Monday for a fiery trip back to Earth, culminating in re-entry back into the atmosphere and a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles.
VideoLive coverage: Dragon cargo capsule returns to Earth
A commercial Dragon cargo capsule wrapped up a four-week stay at the International Space Station on Monday with a departure from the complex at 12:01 p.m. EDT (1601 GMT). The spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 5:48 p.m. EDT (2148 GMT) with several tons of research specimens and equipment.
NASA says SpaceX readying Crew Dragon capsule for possible piloted test flight by end of year
In parallel with an on-going failure investigation, SpaceX is readying downstream Crew Dragon spacecraft for flight in hopes that corrective actions can be implemented in time to launch two astronauts to the International Space Station before the end of the year, a senior NASA manager said Tuesday.
NASA chooses Maxar to build keystone module for lunar Gateway station
NASA has selected Maxar Technologies for a $375 million contract to design, build and launch the core element of a mini-space station in orbit around the moon that will double as a deep space research outpost and a staging point for future human expeditions to the lunar surface.
Trump adds $1.6 billion to NASA budget request to kick start ‘Artemis’ moon mission
The Trump administration is adding an additional $1.6 billion to NASA's $21 billion 2020 budget request to kick start plans to return American astronauts to the moon in 2024, four years earlier than previously planned, NASA announced Monday.
X-ray communications experiment delivered to space station
A novel communications experiment developed by NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory has arrived at the International Space Station to prove data can be transmitted in space using X-ray signals, a breakthrough that could have uses in deep space exploration and military technology on Earth.
Commercial crew capsules still beset by parachute problems
A malfunction during a drop test over Nevada last month for SpaceX's Crew Dragon program has engineers re-examining the crew capsule's parachutes, and Boeing has also encountered parachute failures during testing for its commercial crew capsule, a senior NASA official confirmed Wednesday.
Q&A with Keith Gendreau, principal investigator of the first X-ray space communications experiment (members only)
Keith Gendreau, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about a new experiment on the International Space Station to demonstrate X-ray communications in space for the first time.
SpaceX clears cargo mission for launch, confirms destruction of crew capsule
While recovery teams continue combing through the test site at Cape Canaveral where SpaceX's first space-worthy Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed in an explosive accident last month, engineers a few miles away are pressing ahead with the company's 17th resupply mission to the International Space Station set for launch early Friday.