Dodging persistent thunderstorms that have beseiged Florida most of the summer, a Falcon 9 rocket soared into space overnight and sucessfully delivered a cargo-laden Dragon spacecraft in low Earth orbit to begin SpaceX’s fourth resupply mission to the International Space Station. Delayed a day by bad weather, the 208 foot tall pencil-like rocket blasted off […]
Tag: Dragon
One More Leap, Boeing And SpaceX Win NASA’s Commercial Crew Contracts
U.S. astronauts once again will travel to and from the International Space Station from the United States on American spacecraft under groundbreaking contracts NASA announced Tuesday. The agency unveiled its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, with a […]
SpaceX Falcon 9R Rocket Explodes During Texas Test Flight
SpaceX experienced a rare but disappointing failure today when one of the company’s Falcon 9R (reusable) rockets exploded during a test flight at the SpaceX facility near McGregor, TX. It is unknown if the problem today will affect the scheduled August 27 launch from Cape Canaveral of a Falcon 9 carrying the commercial Asiasat 6 […]
NASA’s Final Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Report Released
With two companies now providing commercial cargo launch services for the International Space Station, NASA is issuing its final report on the now-complete Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program that laid the groundwork for those flights. The report, titled “Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, A New Era in Spaceflight” (NASA/SP-2014-617), documents the work of NASA’s Commercial […]
Photo Feature: Meet The SpaceX Dragon V2 Spacecraft
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk unveiled the Dragon V2 during a ceremony for the new spacecraft inside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. The spacecraft is designed to carry people into Earth’s orbit and was developed in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability agreement. SpaceX is one of NASA’s […]
SpaceX Unveils Next-Generation Manned Dragon Spacecraft
With just a bit of Hollywood-esque flash, SpaceX unveiled the long-awaited passenger-carrying version of their Dragon spacecraft Thursday during a ceremony at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. In front of a gathering of media, employees and invited guests, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk lifted the curtain on the upgraded capsule known as Dragon Version 2, […]
Dragon Begins Third ISS Resupply Mission; First Stage Recovery Test Success
A GoPro Captures Launch Of A SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Carrying Dragon CRS-3 Dodging a gloomy weather forecast, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared into space this afternoon to begin a critical resupply mission to the International Space Station and test a revolutionary booster stage recovery system that could change the economics of the […]
Air Force Releases Details Of Incident That Scrubbed Atlas And Falcon Launches
In the wake of serious outage on the U.S. Air Force Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, officials this morning released a few new details into the nature of the problem that took a tracking station out of commission. The loss of the station, due to a short circuit in a critical radar system, consequently forced […]
Dragon Passes Another Milestone With Sucessful Parachute Drop Test Over Pacific Ocean
Engineers and safety specialists from NASA and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) gathered in Morro Bay, Calif., in late December to demonstrate how the company’s Dragon spacecraft’s parachute system would function in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during ascent.
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns To Earth After Successful Mission
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the second contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 26, with a 12:36 p.m. EDT splashdown in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico. “The scientific research delivered and being returned by Dragon enables advances in every aspect of NASA’s diverse […]