NASA – Page 57 – Spaceflight Now

NASA expected to detail costs for fast-track moon landing program next month

January 18, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA will release a budget profile with a cost estimate for the agency’s Artemis moon program in February in conjunction with the White House’s fiscal year 2021 budget request, according to NASA’s deputy administrator.

SpaceX will trigger an intentional rocket failure to prove crew capsule’s safety

January 18, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX will sacrifice a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday in a fiery test a minute-and-a-half after liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast to prove the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft can safely push astronauts away from a failing launch vehicle, simulating a daring maneuver that would only be attempted on a piloted mission during an in-flight emergency.

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

January 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

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 this weekend, a pair of parachute drop tests, and space station crew schedules.

Live coverage: SpaceX successfully performs Crew Dragon abort test

January 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched an unpiloted Crew Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Sunday. SpaceX triggered an escape maneuver using the Dragon’s thrusters about a minute-and-a-half after liftoff to verify the 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 Stephen Clark

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 William Harwood

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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.