SpaceX, NASA studying commercial crew mission to Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis during the last servicing mission in May 2009. Credit: NASA NASA and SpaceX will study the potential use of a commercial Dragon crew spacecraft to reboost and service the Hubble Space Telescope, a 32-year-old observatory last upgraded by a space shuttle in 2009, officials announced Thursday. The study will explore the the technical feasibility of using a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft...

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Live coverage: Firefly set for middle-of-the-night launch from California

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of Firefly’s Alpha rocket on the “To the Black” test flight with seven small nanosatellites and picosatellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. Video credit: Everyday Astronaut / Firefly Aerospace from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/Zom5rni via World Space In...

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Firefly ready for another try to launch test flight of smallsat rocket

Firefly’s Alpha rocket stands on its launch pad Sept. 29 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: Brian Sandoval / Spaceflight Now After a delay of several weeks due to technical issues, bad weather, and a busy launch range, Firefly Aerospace is set to try again early Friday to send its commercial small satellite launcher into orbit on a test flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The first two launch attempts for Firefly’s...

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Russian Soyuz brings three cosmonauts home from space station

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Russia’s Soyuz MS-21 lands in Kazakhstan with three cosmonauts on-board. Credit: GCTC Three cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station Thursday and returned to Earth aboard their Soyuz spacecraft, safely landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to wrap up a 195-day mission. With outgoing station commander Oleg Artemyev at the controls, flanked on the left by co-pilot Denis...

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Live coverage: Russian cosmonauts depart station, head for landing

Live coverage of the Soyuz MS-21 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/cgykrt7 via World Space In...

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NASA spacecraft smashes into asteroid in first planetary defense test

The long-range navigation camera on NASA’s DART spacecraft captured this view of asteroid Dimorphos moments before impact. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL A $330 million NASA mission completed what amounts to an interplanetary game of darts Monday night with an on-target collision with a space rock nearly 7 million miles from Earth, testing a technique that scientists could use in the future to protect our home planet from a threatening asteroid. Scientists...

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SpaceX, ULA postpone launches as Hurricane Ian moves toward Florida

A view from NOAA’s GOES-16 weather satellite of Hurricane Ian making landfall in Southwest Florida on Sept. 28. Credit: NOAA The forecast track of Hurricane Ian across Central Florida has forced SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to postpone several upcoming launches at Cape Canaveral, including the next crew flight to the International Space Station, a Starlink mission, and the liftoff of an Atlas 5 rocket. SpaceX planned to launch two Falcon 9...

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Watch live views from Kennedy Space Center as Hurricane Ian impacts Florida

Watch live views from our cameras at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as Hurricane Ian brings heavy rain and gusty winds to the Space Coast. NASA moved the Artemis 1 moon rocket back inside the Vehicle Assembly Building on Tuesday. SFN Live from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/70ALazS via World Space In...

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Artemis 1 rocket moved to hangar as spaceport completes hurricane preps

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket moves into the Vehicle Assembly Building on Sept. 27. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now NASA moved the Space Launch System moon rocket back into its hangar Tuesday to take shelter from Hurricane Ian, likely pushing back the next launch attempt for the agency’s long-delayed Artemis 1 lunar test flight until mid-November as Kennedy Space Center braces for high winds and flooding rains. The 322-foot-tall...

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Comment on SpaceX Continues Aggressive East Coast Starlink Launch Campaign by Artemis I Stack Back in VAB, as Launch Dates Shift in Response to Hurricane Ian - AmericaSpace

[…] of Starlink internet communications satellites, bound for low-Earth orbit, the mission is expected to be flown by SpaceX’s veteran B1062 booster, which is set to become the sixth Falcon 9 in a little more than a year to log a tenth […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/hPz21UZ via World Space In...

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Artemis I Stack Back in VAB, as Launch Dates Shift in Response to Hurricane Ian

As @NASA_SLS returns to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), three upcoming missions look set to meet with delay as Hurricane Ian approaches the Space Coast. The post Artemis I Stack Back in VAB, as Launch Dates Shift in Response to Hurricane Ian first appeared on AmericaSpace. from AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/a73MIq6 via World Space In...

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Comment on Dragon Endeavour Splashes Down, Concludes Historic Ax-1 Mission by Crew-5 Ready for Launch, Six-Month Space Station Mission - AmericaSpace

[…] To date, she has logged 64 days in space in May-August 2020—during which she ferried Demo-2 astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to and from the ISS—and last year’s 199-day Crew-2 increment. More recently, Endeavour supported the first all-private mission to the station, AxiomSpace, Inc.’s 17-day Ax-1, earlier this spring. […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/4hK9fwJ via World Space In...

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Comment on Rubio, Crewmates Prepare for Busy Expedition 68 by Crew-5 Ready for Launch, Six-Month Space Station Mission - AmericaSpace

[…] week, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio joined Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin in launching to the ISS aboard Soyuz […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/dTADWUN via World Space In...

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Comment on Crew-5 Targets 29 September Launch, Second Flight for Dragon Endurance by Crew-5 Ready for Launch, Six-Month Space Station Mission - AmericaSpace

[…] As previously outlined by AmericaSpace, the Crew-5 quartet has been training for this mission on several fronts for more than a year. Mann and Cassada, both selected as Astronaut Candidates (ASCANs) by NASA in June 2013, were assigned as Commander and Pilot of the mission last October. […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/7YKmSdP via World Space In...

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Crew-5 Ready for Launch, Six-Month Space Station Mission

Only a week now remains before @AstroDuke, @astro_josh, @Astro_Wakata & Russia's Anna Kikina launch on 3 Oct to @Space_Station. The post Crew-5 Ready for Launch, Six-Month Space Station Mission first appeared on AmericaSpace. from AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/MIW7RN0 via World Space In...

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Live coverage: NASA to move Artemis 1 moon rocket back to assembly building overnight

Live coverage of pre-launch preparations for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. SFN Live from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/LlSONzJ via World Space In...

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Live coverage: NASA’s DART spacecraft on course to slam into asteroid tonight

Live coverage of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. NASA TV coverage Live feed from NASA's DART spacecraft from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/jcyDMFN via World Space In...

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NASA spacecraft on track for asteroid deflection experiment

Artist’s concept of the DART spacecraft, with its LICIACube ride along spacecraft, approaching asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos. Credit: NASA A NASA spacecraft is aiming to slam into a stadium-size asteroid at more than 14,000 mph Monday in a planetary defense experiment to test a technique that could be used in the future to divert threatening asteroids off a collision course with Earth. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, mission will...

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Hurricane Ian prompts NASA to move Artemis moon rocket back to its hangar

NASA’s crawler transporter moves into position near pad 39B on Saturday to prepare for the rollback of the Artemis 1 moon rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky Faced with threatening weather from Hurricane Ian, NASA managers decided Monday to haul the $4.1 billion Artemis 1 rocket off its launch pad and back to the protection of the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building, likely ending any chance of launching the unpiloted...

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Delta 4-Heavy rocket deploys spy satellite on final planned mission from ‘Slick Six’ launch pad

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Sept. 25 with satellite sightings and radio signal detections. ULA’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket climbs away from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base to begin the NROL-91 mission Saturday. Credit: Brian Sandoval / Spaceflight Now United Launch Alliance sent a triple-core Delta 4-Heavy with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite into orbit Saturday from California’s Central Coast, closing out a chapter...

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