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VideoInternational Space Station offers ‘blueprint’ for exploration, first crew says
Bill Shepherd, a former Navy SEAL-turned astronaut who arrived at the International Space Station 20 years ago Monday to begin the continuous occupancy of the orbiting research outpost, says the experience gained by NASA and its global partners over the last two decades provides a blueprint for missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
SpaceX executive pitches Starship for space debris cleanup
SpaceX could use its Starship vehicles to clear out space debris in Earth orbit, alongside the program's more publicized purpose of ferrying people and cargo to the moon and Mars, a company executive said.
Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral scheduled for next week
United Launch Alliance teams mounted a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on top of an Atlas 5 rocket Monday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for a liftoff scheduled just after sunset Nov. 3.
Water molecules detected on moon’s sunlit surface, adding impetus to Artemis
Water molecules have been directly detected across sunlit regions of the moon, not just in ultra-cold, permanently shadowed polar craters, scientists announced Monday, indicating the precious resource may be more easily accessible to future astronauts than previously thought.
SpaceX test-fires Starship prototype with three engines
SpaceX fired three Raptor engines on a prototype of the company’s Starship vehicle Tuesday, accomplishing another milestone on the road toward testing of the methane-fueled rocket at higher altitudes.
ULA’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket still grounded by launch pad problem
United Launch Alliance engineers have resolved the problem that triggered an abort of a planned Delta 4-Heavy rocket launch Sept. 30, but the company said Friday it is continuing to evaluate a concern with the launch pad swing arm retraction system at Cape Canaveral. ULA said the Delta 4-Heavy's mission to launch a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite will be postponed beyond next week.
NASA selects proposals to demonstrate in-space refueling and propellant depot tech
NASA has selected 14 companies for contracts of more than $370 million to advance technology for human missions to the moon and Mars. Most of the money will support flight demonstrations by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and other companies that could lead to in-space refueling and propellant depots for reusable lunar landers and deep space transportation vehicles.
Russia’s space agency unlikely to join NASA-led lunar program
The head of the Russian space agency said this week that the the Gateway mini-space station NASA plans to build around the moon is "too U.S.-centric" and added that Russia unlikely to significantly contribute to the project.
Blue Origin completes successful suborbital space shot
Blue Origin launched its New Shepard suborbital rocket to the edge of space Tuesday from the company's remote desert test site in West Texas on an experimental flight to test precision lunar landing technology for NASA.
VideoCrucial first fueling test on tap for SLS core stage later this month
If all goes according to plan, engineers in southern Mississippi later this month will load cryogenic propellants into the core stage of a rocket NASA says will launch astronauts back to the moon, exposing its tankage and internal plumbing to extreme operating conditions hundreds of degrees below zero for the first time. The fueling test -- a major milestone in its own right -- is a precursor to a high-stakes eight-minute test-firing of the Space Launch System's four shuttle-era main engines planned as soon as November.