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VideoFAA clears SpaceX to launch world’s largest rocket
The Federal Aviation Administration approved a commercial license Friday for the first full-scale test flight of SpaceX's nearly 400-foot-tall Super Heavy and Starship mega-rocket from South Texas, a launch SpaceX said could happen as soon as Monday morning.
Schedule for SpaceX’s Starship test flight hinges on FAA regulatory approval
SpaceX continues to prepare for a launch attempt as soon as next week for the first test flight of its Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket, with final work on the ship's self-destruct system, data reviews, and the receipt of an FAA license still to come before teams proceed into a countdown in South Texas.
SpaceX readying Starship rocket for around-the-world test flight next week
SpaceX said Tuesday it won't perform a final countdown dress rehearsal this week for the giant new Starship launch vehicle, and could send the rocket — standing nearly 40 stories tall on its Texas launch pad — on an around-the-world test flight as soon as next week.
VideoArtemis 2 commander chats with Spaceflight Now
Reid Wiseman, a veteran U.S. Navy test pilot and former chief of NASA's astronaut corps, will lead the four-person crew assigned to the Artemis 2 mission to carry people to the vicinity of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Wiseman says he views the crew's job as making sure NASA's Orion spacecraft is ready for more demanding missions later this decade to support moon landings and assembly of a space station called the Gateway in lunar orbit.
NASA names crew for first human mission to the moon in more than 50 years
NASA announced Monday that former U.S. Navy fighter pilots Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, veteran space station astronaut Christina Koch, and rookie Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will crew the Artemis 2 mission to fly around the far side of the moon as soon as late next year, a test flight that could carry the foursome farther from Earth than any humans in history.
NASA set to announce crew of Artemis 2 moon mission
NASA will unveil the four crew members Monday who will fly around the moon on the first piloted flight of the agency's Orion deep space capsule on the Artemis 2 mission as soon as late next year.
VideoSpaceX test-fires 31 engines on Starship’s gigantic Super Heavy booster
In a significant milestone preparing for liftoff of the world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX test-fired 31 of the booster's 33 methane-fueled engines Thursday in South Texas as the company eyes a launch attempt as soon as March.
SpaceX ready for 33-engine test of Starship’s Super Heavy booster
SpaceX is gearing up for the first full-up test-firing Thursday of all 33 engines on the booster for the company's Starship mega-rocket in Texas, a critical milestone on the path to launching the giant vehicle on its first orbital test flight, which could happen as soon as March if this week's test goes well.
Work begins to harvest Orion spacecraft hardware for Artemis 2 lunar flight
Fresh off the 1.4-million-mile Artemis 1 test flight around around the moon, NASA's Orion spacecraft arrived Dec. 30 back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where technicians will offload propellants and payloads, and begin removing internal hardware destined to fly back to the moon with astronauts on the next Orion crew capsule in 2024.
Artemis 1 back on Earth after near-flawless 25-day moon mission
NASA’s Orion spacecraft parachuted to a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Sunday west of Baja California, ending an unpiloted test flight to the moon that spanned 25-and-a-half days and 1.4 million miles, proving out a new rocket and capsule to carry astronauts back to Earth’s celestial companion.