Commercial Crew – Page 32 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX, Sierra Nevada get more time to finish flight tests

April 2, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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.

NASA presses Congress for more commercial crew funding

February 3, 2015

The Obama administration has requested more than $1.2 billion from congressional appropriators next year to meet NASA’s funding commitments for Boeing and SpaceX’s commercial crew ferry spacecraft, and anything less could delay flights of the capsules past 2017.

SpaceX nears pad abort test for human-rated Dragon capsule

January 30, 2015

SpaceX is finishing up preparations for a major test of a rocket-powered abort system for the company’s new Dragon crew ferry spacecraft, targeting launch from Cape Canaveral in March after a pair of Falcon 9 missions in February.

NASA expects continued use of Soyuz in era of commercial spaceships

January 28, 2015

NASA hopes to begin launching astronauts to the space station aboard Boeing and SpaceX capsules in the 2017 timeframe, but managers expect to still send crews up aboard Russian spacecraft as a hedge against problems that could force some astronauts to make an emergency landing.

Atlas 5 launch pad being prepared for astronaut crews

January 28, 2015

Work on Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew capsule will ramp up at the program’s new home base in Florida this year, with construction of a crew access tower at the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad underway and assembly of a spacecraft test article due to begin in a converted space shuttle hangar.