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SpaceX points to leaky valve as culprit in Crew Dragon test accident
Investigators believe a leak of propellant inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft's propulsion system led to the capsule's explosion April 20 during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, and a senior SpaceX official said Monday that delays are making it "increasingly difficult" to fly astronauts on the commercial spaceship before the end of the year.
Final assembly and test milestones on tap for NASA’s first Orion moon ship
The pressurized crew module and European-built service module for NASA's first Orion spacecraft to travel to the moon will be joined together for the first time in the coming weeks at the Kennedy Space Center, with preparations -- at least for Orion -- on a pace to be ready for launch on an unpiloted test flight next year.
NASA shakes up moon program management
In a major shakeup at NASA Headquarters, agency Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday that Bill Gerstenmaier, the widely respected director of human spaceflight, has been replaced in the midst of an ambitious push to meet the Trump administration's directive to send astronauts back to the moon within five years.
Firefly to build U.S. version of Israeli Beresheet lunar lander
Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company which is already developing a small satellite launcher, has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries to build lunar landers in the United States and carry NASA science instruments to the moon, officials announced Tuesday.
Newly-released videos show SpaceX payload fairing coming back to Earth
New videos released Wednesday by SpaceX show the payload fairing from the company's Falcon Heavy rocket plunging back into the atmosphere after launch June 25, trailing a wake of haunting blue super-heated plasma before unfurling a parafoil and landing in the net of an offshore recovery ship.
Mars lander’s ground team begins inspection of stuck instrument
In a bit of interplanetary troubleshooting, the robot arm on NASA's InSight Mars lander has lifted a support structure to reveal an underground thermal probe that got stuck soon after it started hammering into the Red Planet's surface earlier this year.
More photos from SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy night launch
The predawn launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center of a Falcon Heavy rocket June 25 was the first nighttime liftoff of SpaceX's heavy-lifter, the most powerful launcher currently operational anywhere in the world. The Falcon Heavy's two side boosters returned to Cape Canaveral less than nine minutes later.
SLS mobile launcher moves to pad 39B for final exams
A towering mobile platform for the agency's Space Launch System arrived at launch pad 39B Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a sequence of water and propellant flow tests, swing arm checkouts and other rehearsals that should conclude with managers declaring the spaceport's ground systems ready to support the first SLS launch campaign by the end of the year.
NASA approves development of flying drone to explore Saturn’s moon Titan
NASA officials announced Thursday that the agency will move forward with the development of a plutonium-powered robotic quadcopter drone to explore Saturn's moon Titan, a hazy world covered with dunes and methane lakes that scientists say is reminiscent of the ancient Earth.
Photos: Falcon Heavy lights up Florida’s Space Coast
The world's most powerful operational rocket flashed to life at 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT) Tuesday and climbed into a moonlit summer sky from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same site where the Apollo 11 astronauts left Earth for their historic moon landing nearly 50 years ago.