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Fitted with super-clean sample tubes, NASA’s next Mars rover nears launch date
The Perseverance rover’s sterilized sample tubes — designed to seal Martian rock and sediment for eventual return to Earth — are installed on the spacecraft as teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center prepare to enclose the rover inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 launcher for liftoff July 20.
After crane problem, ULA caps build-up of Atlas 5 rocket for Mars rover launch
United Launch Alliance has completed stacking of the major elements of the Atlas 5 rocket assigned to power NASA's Perseverance rover toward Mars, but the mission's launch date has been pushed back three days to July 20 after teams repaired an issue with a crane in the Atlas 5's assembly building.
Astronauts say riding Falcon 9 rocket was “totally different” from the space shuttle
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken say SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was a "very pure flying machine" as it sped their Crew Dragon spaceship into orbit, but they said they were surprised by the rougher-than-expected ride on the Falcon 9's powerful upper stage.
Photos: SpaceX’s first crewed mission launches from pad 39A
This collection of images from NASA and SpaceX photographers shows the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifting off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket May 30.
NASA signs Gateway habitat design contract with Northrop Grumman
NASA has signed a $187 million contract with Northrop Grumman to complete the preliminary design of a pressurized crew habitat for the planned Gateway mini-space station near the moon, and agency officials have discussed new details about plans to launch first two Gateway modules on a single heavy-lift rocket.
NASA anticipates August return for Hurley and Behnken
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will likely return to Earth in August to wrap up a test flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, a senior space agency official said Tuesday.
SpaceX’s reusable Falcon booster returns to port after crew launch
Almost exactly three days after taking off a few miles to the north at the Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX's historic first crew launch, a 15-story-tall Falcon rocket booster returned to Florida's Space Coast Tuesday aboard a football field-sized drone ship.
Photos: Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon blast off from pad 39A
SpaceX's first human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft took off Saturday from historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launching NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on the first piloted orbital space mission from a U.S. spaceport in nearly a decade.
Making history, astronauts ride commercial capsule to space station
A Crew Dragon spaceship built and owned by SpaceX glided to an automated docking with the International Space Station Sunday, delivering NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the orbiting research complex after a trouble-free 19-hour flight from the Kennedy Space Center.
Watch the astronauts give a tour of their new Crew Dragon spacecraft
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken give a video tour of their new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as they close in on a docking with the International Space Station on May 31, 2020.