NASA – Page 58 – Spaceflight Now

NASA boss pleads for funding to ensure 2024 moon landing

July 17, 2019 William Harwood

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate panel Wednesday that a budget impasse and subsequent spending freeze later this year would be “devastating” to the agency’s goal of sending the first woman and next man to the moon by the end of 2024.

SpaceX points to leaky valve as culprit in Crew Dragon test accident

July 15, 2019 Stephen Clark

Investigators believe a leak of propellant inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system led to the capsule’s explosion April 20 during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, and a senior SpaceX official said Monday that delays are making it “increasingly difficult” to fly astronauts on the commercial spaceship before the end of the year.

Final assembly and test milestones on tap for NASA’s first Orion moon ship

July 15, 2019 Stephen Clark

The pressurized crew module and European-built service module for NASA’s first Orion spacecraft to travel to the moon will be joined together for the first time in the coming weeks at the Kennedy Space Center, with preparations — at least for Orion — on a pace to be ready for launch on an unpiloted test flight next year.

Made in Space wins NASA contract to 3D-print satellite structures in orbit

July 14, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA awarded a $73.7 million contract Friday to the California-based startup Made in Space for a 3D-printing demonstration using a free-flying small satellite to additively manufacture solar array beams in space.

Proton launch delayed to Saturday

July 12, 2019 Stephen Clark

Russian officials have delayed until Saturday the launch of a Proton rocket from Kazakhstan with the Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy observatory, an ambitious mission jointly developed with Germany to probe dark energy.

NASA shakes up moon program management

July 11, 2019 William Harwood

In a major shakeup at NASA Headquarters, agency Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday that Bill Gerstenmaier, the widely respected director of human spaceflight, has been replaced in the midst of an ambitious push to meet the Trump administration’s directive to send astronauts back to the moon within five years.

Firefly to build U.S. version of Israeli Beresheet lunar lander

July 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company which is already developing a small satellite launcher, has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries to build lunar landers in the United States and carry NASA science instruments to the moon, officials announced Tuesday.

Proton rocket and astronomy satellite back on the launch pad after battery replacement

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Poised to loft a Russian-German X-ray astronomy observatory into space Friday, a Proton rocket returned to its launch pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after a three-week delay to replace a drained battery on the vehicle.

Commercial satellite images historic Apollo launch pads

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Maxar’s eagle-eyed WorldView 3 satellite captured high-resolution views Monday of NASA’s twin Apollo-era launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, both now home to new launch vehicles 50 years after humans took their first steps on the moon.

SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch X-ray telescope on reused rocket

July 8, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — flying with a reused first stage booster — to launch the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 2021, bypassing Northrop Grumman’s air-launched Pegasus rocket for the task.