U.S. Set to Approve Moon Mission by Commercial Space Venture
Posted: June 5, 2016 Filed under: Global, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Dragon (spacecraft), Earth, Eastern Time Zone, Federal Aviation Administration, India, Indian Space Research Organisation, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, International Space Station, Mars, Moon, NASA, National Transportation Safety Board, SpaceX, Unmanned aerial vehicle Leave a comment
Startup Proposes to Land Payload of Scientific Gear on Lunar Surface Some Time Next Year.
The government’s endorsement would eliminate the largest regulatory obstacle to plans by Moon Express, a relatively obscure space startup, to land a roughly 20-pound package of scientific hardware on the Moon sometime next year. It also would provide the biggest federal boost yet for unmanned commercial space exploration and, potentially, the first in an array of for-profit ventures throughout the solar system.
The expected decision, said the people familiar with the details, is expected to set important legal and diplomatic precedents for how Washington will ensure such nongovernmental projects comply with longstanding international space treaties. The principles are likely to apply to future spacecraft whose potential purposes range from mining asteroids to tracking space debris.
Approval of a formal launch license for the second half of 2017 is still months away, and the proposed mission poses huge technical hurdles for California-based Moon Express, including the fact that the rocket it wants to use hasn’t yet flown.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
But the project’s proponents have considered federal clearance of the suitcase-size MX-1 lander and its payload as well as approval of a planned two-week operation on the Moon itself to pose the most significant legal challenges to the mission.
After months of lobbying by Moon Express officials and high-level deliberations among various federal agencies led by the White House science office, the people familiar with the matter said, the company appears close to obtaining what it has called “mission approval.” Until recently, Moon Express faced a regulatory Catch-22 because there was no template for getting Washington’s blessing for what it proposed.
Official action coordinated through the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates U.S. rocket launches and is responsible for traditional payload reviews, could come as soon as the next few weeks, these people said. Read the rest of this entry »
SpaceX Lands Fourth Booster after Successful Falcon 9 Launch
Posted: May 27, 2016 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Boeing, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40, CST-100, Dragon (spacecraft), Elon Musk, Falcon 9, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, SpaceX Leave a comment
James Dean reports: SpaceX enjoyed a trio of successes on Friday when it launched its Falcon 9 rocket, landed the first stage and deployed a communications satellite.Falcon 9 blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:39 p.m. Eastern time with the Thaicom 8Wochit
SpaceX on Friday landed its third consecutive rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, during a mission that successfully launched a commercial communications satellite to orbit.
“Falcon 9 has landed,” a member of SpaceX’s launch team confirmed about 10 minutes after a 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket’s 5:39 p.m. blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
About 20 minutes later, the rocket’s upper stage deployed the Thaicom 8 satellite in orbit as planned.
“All looks good,” reported SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Photos: SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral with Thaicom 8
Later, Musk said the rocket stage had landed at close to the top speed it was designed to handle, possibly undermining its stability on the ship floating more than 400 miles offshore.
“Prob ok, but some risk of tipping,” he said on Twitter.
[Read the full story here, at floridatoday.com]
If it staid upright, crews planned to board the unpiloted “drone ship” to weld shoes over the rocket’s four landing legs and sail it back to Port Canaveral within a few days.
Musk’s comment was a reminder that despite a remarkable run of three straight booster landings and four in the company’s last six missions, the landings remain experimental.
SpaceX’s long-term goal is to cut launch costs by reusing rockets. Musk wants to achieve aircraft-like operations, with teams needing only to hose down down and refuel rockets between flights.
But the rockets landed Friday and three weeks ago have sustained more damage, possibly too much to allow them to fly again.
Read the rest of this entry »
SpaceX Continues Ambitious Launch Schedule with Next Mission, Fifth One This Year
Posted: May 25, 2016 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Boeing, Cape Canaveral, Dragon (spacecraft), Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, International Space Station, Low Earth orbit, Mars, NASA, Red Dragon (spacecraft), SpaceX, Sunita Williams, United States Leave a comment
Emily Calandrelli reports: Less than a month after their last successful mission, SpaceX is back at it again. Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:40pm EST tomorrow with telecommunications satellite Thaicom 8 on board.
What’s truly notable is that tomorrow’s launch will be the fifth one for SpaceX this year, demonstrating an increased launch frequency compared to last year.
In 2015, SpaceX conducted a total of six successful Falcon 9 launches, putting their launch frequency at about one launch every other month. So far this year, they’ve doubled that frequency with nearly one launch per month.
[Read the full story here, at TechCrunch]
In March, President of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, stated that the company actually plans to launch a total of 18 times in 2016, which would triple the number of successful launches compared to 2015. She also said that they plan to increase that launch rate even further the following year with 24 hopeful launches in 2017.
The expected increase would be remarkable considering there were only 82 recorded successful orbital launches in the entire world last year. This number was down from 2014, which saw 90 successful orbital launches – the highest number of annual launches in two decades.
With more Falcon 9 launches comes more rocket recovery attempts, and tomorrow’s mission will be no exception.
After the launch, SpaceX will make another attempted recovery of the first stage of their rocket on a drone ship out at sea.
SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You drone ship / Image Courtesy of SpaceX
A land-based recovery was ruled out for this mission because Thaicom 8 needs to be inserted into geostationary orbit (GEO: an altitude of above 22,000 miles), which means the mission will require higher speeds and more fuel and wouldn’t be able to navigate back to land.
Missions like these are precisely why SpaceX has worked to perfect their sea-based landings. Read the rest of this entry »
Kennedy Space Center Displays Suit Worn By Buzz Aldrin While Lobbying For NASA Funding
Posted: May 5, 2016 Filed under: Humor, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin, Cape Canaveral, Countdown, Curiosity (rover), Dragon (spacecraft), Earth, Elon Musk, Florida, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, Mars, NASA, Neil Armstrong, SpaceX, United States Leave a comment
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL—Expressing their excitement to share the historic item with visitors, Kennedy Space Center officials confirmed Thursday that the suit worn by Buzz Aldrin on February 24, 2015 when he lobbied the Senate to increase NASA funding was now on display for public viewing. “We are honored to add to our collection the actual jacket and trousers Dr. Aldrin wore that fateful day when he stepped out into room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building and uttered the immortal words ‘I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak with you about the future of American human spaceflight,’” the facility’s associate director, Kelvin Manning, said of the charcoal single-breasted suit, which was displayed together with the crisp button-down shirt, mission patch–patterned tie, and various lapel pins the former astronaut donned as he made the case for expanding the U.S. space program through strategic investments…(more)
SpaceX Has Nearly A Full Uber Funding In Contracts
Posted: September 14, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Dragon (spacecraft), Earth, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Greenhouse gas, International Space Station, Low Earth orbit, NASA, SpaceX Leave a comment
Drew Olanoff writes: Sending things to space isn’t cheap, which is exactly why Elon Musk got into the business with SpaceX. In a press release today about some newly signed contracts for use of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, the company updated just how much money it has booked.
Seven Billion Dollars under contract for the 60 missions on manifest. To put all of this into perspective, Uber has raised $8.2 Billion to date.
Financially, the milestone is notable. SpaceX raised a fresh $1 billion in January of this year, after denying that it had reached a valuation of of $10 billion last Summer.
Space exploration is a capital intensive business. To date, SpaceX has raised $1.2 billion. Given the massive discrepancy between the startup’s past raise total, and its recent raise quantity, it seems quite reasonable to presume that the firm isn’t cash poor looking ahead in the short, or moderate term. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] ‘The Vehicle Experienced an Anomaly on Ascent’: SpaceX CRS-7 Explodes Moments After Liftoff, Mission Ends In Disaster
Posted: June 28, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40, Commercial Resupply Services, Dragon (spacecraft), Falcon 9, Florida, International Space Station, NASA, SpaceX Leave a commentThe latest Dragon spacecraft cargo run to the International Space Station blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 28th, 2015 and exploded during flight. SpaceX wanted to attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on a ocean platform. [The last attempt crashed into the platform – see the tracking cam video]
Christian Davenport reports: An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded a couple of minutes after liftoff Sunday morning. It was the third cargo mission to the space station to be lost in recent months.
SpaceX tweeted: “The vehicle experienced an anomaly on ascent. Team is investigating. Updates to come.”
NASA officials said it was not clear what caused the explosion.
SpaceX was carrying more than 4,000 pounds of food and supplies to the space station, where American Scott Kelly is spending a year in space. There were no astronauts on board.
Watched #Dragon launch from @space_station Sadly failed Space is hard Teams assess below @NASAKennedy #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/myi3col5Ix
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) June 28, 2015
The failure follows two earlier mishaps. An Orbital Antares rocket blew up in October, and then a Russian Progress 59 spun out of control after reaching orbit.
Before the launch, Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokeswoman, said that the station had plenty of supplies on board and that the crew would be fine even if there was another failure. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] New POV Video from SpaceX Takes You for a Ride on Crew Dragon’s First Flight
Posted: May 23, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Boeing, California, Cape Canaveral, Dragon (spacecraft), Elon Musk, Florida, International Space Station, Launch escape system, NASA, SpaceX 1 Comment“It was a great, great outcome,” Musk said after the test. “Had there been people on board, they would have been in great shape.”
The two-minute video shows the Dragon capsule blasting off from its Florida launchpad, separating from its trunk and reaching a maximum velocity of 345 mph, according to SpaceX. The Crew Dragon flew about 5,000 feet into the air before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean under its parachutes….(read more)
SpaceX Tests Launch Abort System
Posted: May 6, 2015 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Cape Canaveral, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, CNN, Comparison of space station cargo vehicles, Draco (rocket engine family), Dragon (spacecraft), Falcon 9, Florida, International Space Station, SpaceX Leave a comment
SpaceX has put its Dragon astronaut capsule through a practice abort.
The demonstration simulated what would happen to the crewship in the event of a rocket failure on the launch pad.
Wednesday’s test was conducted at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and saw a test vehicle – carrying no humans, only a dummy – hurled skywards by a set of powerful in-built thrusters.
The Dragon ship was propelled to a safe distance, lowering itself softly into the Atlantic via three parachutes.
SpaceX expects to start launching astronauts in 2017.
Missed this morning’s @SpaceX Pad Abort Test or want to watch it again? Here it is. #LaunchAmerica @Commercial_Crew https://t.co/jyia4CPxRV
— NASA (@NASA) May 6, 2015
It is one of two companies that have been contracted by the US space agency (Nasa) to develop vehicles to ferry people to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The other firm is Boeing.
Both have to demonstrate effective launch escape technologies for their rockets and capsules to receive certification. Only with the necessary assurance will Nasa permit its astronauts to climb aboard.
SpaceX has elected to use a so-called pusher system on the Dragon.
Eight SuperDraco thrusters have been integrated into the side of the ship, and these fired in tandem for just over five seconds at the start of the test to hurl the ship up and to the east of the Cape. Read the rest of this entry »
[PHOTO] ‘Buona Notte Dallo Spazio’
Posted: April 21, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Space & Aviation | Tags: Astronaut, Dragon (spacecraft), Earth, European Space Agency, International Space Station, Italian European Space Agency, NASA, Photography, Sam Cristoforetti, Samantha Cristoforetti, Space Exploration, Space station Leave a comment
Good night from #space.
Sam Cristoforetti @AstroSamantha
Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the first Italian woman in space.
[VIDEO] SpaceX Launch Successful: Attempt to Land Booster Rocket on Platform #Fail
Posted: April 14, 2015 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, Commercial Resupply Services, Dragon (spacecraft), Falcon 9, Florida, International Space Station, NASA, SpaceX Leave a commentAfter six successful missions to the International Space Station, including five official resupply missions for NASA, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are set to liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for their sixth official Commercial Resupply Services (CRS)
Meet Valkyrie, NASA’s ‘Superhero Robot’
Posted: February 9, 2015 Filed under: Robotics, Space & Aviation | Tags: Boeing, Charles Bolden, Commercial Crew Development, CST-100, DARPA, Dragon (spacecraft), International Space Station, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, NASA, SpaceX Leave a comment
Designed to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, this “female” robot could be the precursor to robo-astronauts that will help colonize Mars.
What if NASA’s Robonaut grew legs and indulged in steroids? The result might be close to what NASA has unveiled: Valkyrie is a humanoid machine billed as a “superhero robot.” Developed at the Johnson Space Center, Valkyrie is a 6.2-foot, 275-pound hulk designed to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). It will go toe to toe with the Terminator-like Atlas robot from Boston Dynamics in what’s shaping up to be an amazing modern-day duel. In an interesting twist, Valkyrie seems to be a girl. Read the rest of this entry »
Falcon 9 Passes Readiness Review
Posted: February 6, 2015 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Aviation, Dragon (spacecraft), Elon Musk, Falcon 9, International Space Station, Launch, NASA, rockets, Space Exploration, Spaceflight Now, SpaceX Leave a commentIdeal weather predicted for Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch after passage of key readiness review: http://t.co/hQnxFgRV7J pic.twitter.com/PRXcwIWUgu
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) February 6, 2015
SpaceX Launches Rocket, Attempt to Land Booster Falls Short: ‘Close, but No Cigar’
Posted: January 10, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Cargo ship, Dragon (spacecraft), Earth, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, International Space Station, NASA, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Rocket, SpaceShipTwo, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic Leave a commentMelody Petersen reports: Elon Musk’s SpaceX sent a cargo capsule loaded with International Space Station supplies into orbit Saturday morning, but the company’s unprecedented attempt to set down the craft’s first-stage rocket on an ocean barge was rocky and damaged the booster.
“Rocket made it to the drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.”
— Elon Musk
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral at 1:47 a.m. Pacific time.
Within minutes, the cargo-filled capsule separated from the first-stage booster rocket and continued on its way to orbit and rendezvous with the space station.
That was when SpaceX attempted what had never been done: flying the 13-story booster back to Earth and landing it upright on an ocean barge.
The booster made it to the barge, but Musk tweeted that some of the vessel’s equipment was damaged by the impact. “Ship itself is fine,” he wrote. “Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced.”
“Didn’t get good landing/impact video,” he tweeted. “Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and … actual pieces.”
Hawthorne-based SpaceX hopes to one day be able to reuse the first stage, which includes the expensive and powerful engines needed to blast the capsule to orbit. The planned landing and recovery of the first stage is part of Musk’s goal to eventually be able to refly the same spacecraft many times, greatly lowering the cost of space flight. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 