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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Live coverage: Falcon 9 ignited for test-firing ahead of launch next week
After several delays earlier this week, SpaceX conducted a hold-down test-firing of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Friday evening in a key test before launch next week on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
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.
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.
NASA picks three companies to send commercial landers to the moon
NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon's surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon.
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.
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.