Commercial Crew – Page 32 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Dragon prototype poised for abort test

May 5, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s new Dragon crew ferry craft is in position for a key test Wednesday of the capsule’s safety system designed to whisk astronauts away from a dangerous rocket mishap during launch.

SpaceX preps for test of Dragon capsule’s life-saving abort system

May 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

A spaceship designed to ferry astronauts into orbit by 2017 is set for a major test Wednesday, when SpaceX plans to blast the capsule away from Cape Canaveral on a mile-high demo flight to simulate the craft’s ability to protect occupants in the event of a catastrophic rocket mishap on the pad.

Dragon pad abort test set for early May

April 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

A major test of the system that would shoot SpaceX astronaut crews away from a failing rocket is scheduled for no earlier than May 5 from a specially-built mount at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, NASA announced Tuesday.

ULA sees clean handover of Boeing crew launches to Vulcan rocket

April 18, 2015 Justin Ray

United Launch Alliance vows a “seamless” switch from the Atlas 5 to the new Vulcan rocket in launches of Boeing’s astronaut taxis.

SpaceX, Sierra Nevada get more time to finish flight tests

April 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA has extended development agreements with SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. past a March 31 deadline, giving the companies more time to complete delayed tests on commercial spacecraft intended to one day ferry astronauts into space.

Falcon Heavy rocket hangar rises at launch pad 39A

February 25, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX began erecting a new hangar at a former space shuttle launch pad in Florida last week, moving the historic facility closer to launching astronauts again.

Photos from this weekend’s spacewalk

February 23, 2015 Stephen Clark

Check out photos taken by two astronauts who ventured outside the International Space Station on Saturday, running more than 300 feet of wiring that will eventually be connected to new docking ports to receive commercial spaceships built by Boeing and SpaceX.

Video: Groundbreaking for commercial crew access tower

February 22, 2015 Justin Ray

There was a groundbreaking Friday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 to start building the astronaut access tower to board Boeing’s CST-100 capsules atop United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.

Astronauts prep space station for commercial capsules

February 21, 2015 William Harwood

Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Terry Virts floated outside the International Space Station Saturday and installed wiring needed for two new docking mechanisms that will be attached later this year for use by Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules.

Astronauts, spacesuits ready for spacewalk Saturday

February 19, 2015 William Harwood

NASA space station managers decided Thursday to delay the first two of three planned spacewalks by one day to give flight controllers and engineers a chance to catch their collective breath after exhaustive troubleshooting to verify the health of critical internal spacesuit components.