Moon – Page 8 – Spaceflight Now

SLS booster test-fired in Utah

September 2, 2020 Stephen Clark

Northrop Grumman test-fired a five-segment solid-fueled booster for NASA’s Space Launch System Wednesday at the company’s test facility in Promontory, Utah.

Penultimate piece of NASA’s first SLS rocket arrives at Kennedy Space Center

August 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

One of the final pieces for the first test flight of NASA’s huge Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket recently arrived at the Kennedy Space Center, joining other elements already at the Florida spaceport awaiting shipment of the SLS core stage once it completes testing at a NASA facility in Mississippi.

NASA chief still hopeful to get more money for moon landing effort

July 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

House lawmakers this week proposed to fund NASA’s human-rated lunar lander development program at less than one-fifth of the level the Trump administration wanted, but NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday the House budget bill is just the “opening salvo” in an appropriations process that now goes to the Senate.

SLS booster segments arrive in Florida, but stacking on hold until core stage test

June 22, 2020 Stephen Clark

Fueled segments of the solid rocket boosters that will lift off on the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but officials will hold off on stacking the boosters until the SLS core stage completes a crucial test-firing later this year.

New NASA spaceflight chief makes no guarantees about 2024 moon landing goal

June 18, 2020 William Harwood

Kathy Lueders, NASA’s newly appointed head of human spaceflight operations, said Thursday that without a crystal ball, she could not give a yes-or-no answer when asked whether she believes NASA can put astronauts back on the moon by the end of 2024 as called for by the Trump administration.

NASA signs Gateway habitat design contract with Northrop Grumman

June 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

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’s chief of human spaceflight resigns on cusp of critical crew launch

May 19, 2020 Stephen Clark

The head of NASA’s human spaceflight programs has abruptly resigned, announcing his departure from the space agency two days before before he was to chair a crucial readiness review ahead of the launch of the first crewed U.S. space mission in nearly a decade.

NASA will likely add a rendezvous test to the first piloted Orion space mission

May 18, 2020 Stephen Clark

Astronauts will likely perform a previously-unplanned demonstration of the Orion spacecraft’s deep space rendezvous capabilities in a high-altitude orbit around Earth on the crew capsule’s first piloted test flight, now scheduled for 2023.

China’s next-generation crew spacecraft lands after unpiloted test flight

May 8, 2020 Stephen Clark

A next-generation Chinese capsule designed to carry astronauts to the country’s planned space station, and eventually the moon, wrapped up a nearly three-day unpiloted orbital test flight Friday with a landing in northwestern China.

NASA plans to launch first two Gateway elements on same rocket

May 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

Aiming to reduce risk and costs, NASA has decided to launch the first two modules of the Gateway station in lunar orbit on the same heavy-lift rocket in 2023, rather than fly them on separate rockets and dock them together in deep space, according to the the agency’s chief human spaceflight manager.