Texas – Page 6 – Spaceflight Now

NASA flight controllers shelter in place during storm

August 27, 2017 William Harwood

Flight controllers and other essential personnel at NASA’s Johnson Space Center just south of Houston are sheltering in place, maintaining contact with the International Space Station during torrential rain and flooding across south Texas from the slow-moving remnants of Hurricane Harvey.

First core of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket fired in Texas

May 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

The center section of SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket has been test-fired at the launch company’s test facility in Central Texas, a sign of progress toward the behemoth booster’s long-delayed maiden mission scheduled some time in the final months of 2017.

James Webb Space Telescope shipped to Texas for its biggest test yet

May 9, 2017 Stephen Clark

The centerpiece of the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for a three-month test to ensure the observatory’s sensors and gold-coated mirrors work in the frigid temperatures of deep space.

SpaceX rocket tagged for reuse test-fired in Texas

February 3, 2017 Stephen Clark

The Falcon 9 first stage booster assigned to launch as soon as March on SpaceX’s first mission with a previously-flown rocket has been test-fired at the company’s development facility in Central Texas.

Privately-developed rocket aces abort test

October 5, 2016 Stephen Clark

Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, launched a dramatic flight test over West Texas on Wednesday to verify the performance of an escape system on its reusable suborbital launcher designed to loft space tourists, researchers and commercial astronauts on short rides to the edge of space.

SpaceX fires previously-flown rocket in major stride toward reusability

July 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Throttling up to more than a million pounds of thrust at SpaceX’s Central Texas test facility, a Falcon 9 rocket booster recovered after a commercial satellite launch in May passed a key milestone Thursday as the company sets its sights on re-flying a used first stage on a mission this fall.

Blue Origin flies reusable suborbital rocket for fourth time

June 19, 2016 Stephen Clark

Blue Origin’s suborbital space transport system made another test flight Sunday, launching and landing at the company’s West Texas test facility to prove out the crew capsule’s resiliency to a parachute failure.

Companies offer fresh perspectives on recent rocket landings

May 10, 2016 Stephen Clark

In case the the sight of a large rocket plummeting back to Earth, only to be slowed in the last seconds by a puff of thrust, hasn’t lost its novelty yet, SpaceX and Blue Origin have released dramatic videos showing their recent powered rocket landings from new angles.

Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard booster flies again

January 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Two months after it flew into space and landed smoothly, Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard booster made the trip again Friday, proving it can be reused for future space tourism jaunts and laying the groundwork for a future commercial satellite launcher, the company said.

Bezos-backed Blue Origin achieves rocket landing

November 24, 2015 Stephen Clark

A suborbital rocket booster built by Blue Origin, an entrepreneurial space firm founded by Internet tycoon Jeff Bezos, streaked into space in the skies over West Texas and descended to a pinpoint propulsive touchdown on a landing pad, the company announced Tuesday.