NASA – Spaceflight Now

Pending test outcomes, NASA says SpaceX could launch astronauts in early March

January 17, 2020

A NASA official said Friday that SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could be ready to ferry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station as soon as early March, pending the results from a major demonstration of the ship’s launch abort system Saturday, a pair of parachute drop tests, and space station crew schedules.

Live coverage: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in-flight launch abort test set for Saturday

January 17, 2020

SpaceX is scheduled to perform a high-altitude test of the launch escape system on the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft between 8 a.m. EST and 12 p.m. EST (1300-1700 GMT) Saturday over the Atlantic Ocean around a minute-and-a-half after liftoff on a modified Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The test flight will verify the Crew Dragon’s launch abort engines can safely carry the capsule — and astronauts on future missions — away from a failing rocket.

SpaceX abort test serves as practice run for astronauts, rescue teams

January 16, 2020

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule were raised vertical at launch pad 39A in Florida late Thursday, setting the stage for a launch day dress rehearsal Friday with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — the veteran space fliers assigned to the Crew Dragon’s first piloted mission later this year — before a critical in-flight test of the ship’s emergency escape system Saturday.

Koch, Meir continue space station battery replacements on successful spacewalk

January 15, 2020

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated back outside the International Space Station Wednesday for history’s second all-female spacewalk, installing two powerful new lithium-ion batteries on the far left end of the lab’s solar power truss.

New discoveries from NASA’s TESS mission include potentially habitable exoplanet

January 10, 2020

Scientists crunching data from NASA’s orbiting TESS planet-hunting observatory have discovered a potentially habitable Earth-sized world circling a star a bit more than 100 light-years from the sun, the first such detection by the TESS mission since its launch in 2018, astronomers announced this week.

NASA, Boeing aim to deliver first SLS core stage to Kennedy Space Center by this fall

January 10, 2020

After years of delays, the core stage for NASA’s first Space Launch System moon rocket rolled out of its New Orleans factory Wednesday, heading for a NASA site in Mississippi for a test-firing before engineers hope to ship the rocket to its Florida launch base by this fall.

First SLS core stage departs factory

January 8, 2020

The heart of NASA’s first flight-ready Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket emerged from its factory in New Orleans Wednesday morning for a barge trip to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for an eight-minute test-firing of its space shuttle-era hydrogen-fueled engines.

Stacking of ULA’s next Atlas 5 rocket begins at Cape Canaveral

January 6, 2020

United Launch Alliance teams began stacking an Atlas 5 rocket inside a vertical hangar at Cape Canaveral Monday in preparation for an early February launch with the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint U.S.-European probe that will take the first pictures of the sun’s poles.

Koch marks record stay in space for female astronaut

December 30, 2019

Astronaut Christina Koch, launched to the International Space Station in March, marks her 289th day in space Saturday, breaking retired astronaut Peggy Whitson’s world record for the longest single spaceflight by a female.

Photos: Boeing’s Starliner ends shortened mission with landing in New Mexico

December 30, 2019

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft parachuted to an airbag-cushioned landing in New Mexico on Dec. 22 to conclude an abbreviated two-day test orbital test flight that accomplished many objectives, but missed a planned rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station.