Tag: Dragon

Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX launches cargo craft with mighty mice

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from its Florida launch pad, sending a robotic Dragon cargo ship into space. (SpaceX via YouTube)

A fresh SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a recycled robotic Dragon cargo capsule today, carrying 5,700 pounds of supplies, satellites and science to the International Space Station.

In contrast with Dec. 4’s planned launch attempt, which was called off due to excessively high upper-level winds, today’s countdown proceeded smoothly to liftoff at 12:29 p.m. ET (9:29 a.m. PT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage fell away as planned and flew itself back for touchdown on a drone ship stationed hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX went with an at-sea landing of the first stage today so that it could put the second stage through a long-duration thermal test.

The Dragon cargo craft, meanwhile, continued onward toward the space station for SpaceX’s 19th cargo resupply mission under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA. It’s due to rendezvous on Dec. 8 and will be pulled in for a berthing using the station’s robotic arm.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

NASA’s in the market for quick space taxi rides

Starliner and space station
An artist’s conception shows a Boeing Starliner space taxi approaching the International Space Station. (Boeing Illustration)

NASA already has committed billions of dollars to procuring regularly scheduled rides to and from the International Space Station from commercial space taxi operators — but now it says it’s interested in buying short-term trips as well.

The proposed arrangement, detailed on Nov. 26, is aimed at giving a boost to the commercialization of space operations in low Earth orbit, as well as to NASA’s drive to send astronauts to the moon by 2024. It also makes the line dividing government-funded and privately funded space efforts even fuzzier.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Report sharpens debate over spaceship costs

SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner
An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s Starliner capsule and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon craft. (NASA Graphic)

Boeing is in line to get paid substantially more per seat than SpaceX for astronaut trips to the International Space Station, in part because it negotiated an increase in what was meant to be a fixed-cost contract, NASA’s Office of the Inspector General says in a watchdog report.

The 53-page report, issued Nov. 14, estimates the per-seat cost for flights on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule at $90 million, which would be more than the $84 million or so that NASA has been paying the Russians for rides on their Soyuz spacecraft. In contrast, the price for a seat on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule was estimated at $55 million.

In response, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that “this doesn’t seem right.” He said it was “not fair that Boeing gets so much more for the same thing.”

Boeing, meanwhile, took issue with the way the figures were calculated. And while the officials in charge of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program generally accepted the report’s findings, they said Boeing’s increased payout was fairly negotiated.

The inspector general’s report fueled criticism over cost overruns and scheduling delays in the development of commercial space taxis for transporting astronauts to and from the space station. NASA has had to rely on the Russians for such rides since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX Dragon fires up launch abort thrusters

SpaceX static-fire test
Thrusters blaze during a static-fire test of the launch abort system on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. (SpaceX via Twitter)

SpaceX went the distance today with a static-fire test of its Crew Dragon space taxi’s launch escape system — the same type of test that ended in a costly explosion when it was conducted in April.

A photo released after the firing shows the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco thrusters blazing away on the test stand at SpaceX’s Florida facility. The full-duration firing brings the company one step closer to flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station next year.

“SpaceX and NASA teams are now reviewing test data and working toward an in-flight demonstration of Crew Dragon’s launch escape system,” SpaceX tweeted.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX launches Dragon to slime the space station

SpaceX has launched the same robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station for a third time, sending about 5,000 pounds of cargo that includes a bag of goopy green slime.

The slime, provided by Nickelodeon, will be used on the space station to demonstrate fluid flow in zero gravity — and undoubtedly delight youngsters who’ll watch the crew poke, squish, pull and prod the green stuff in future videos.

It’s just one of the dozens of science experiments included on the manifest for SpaceX’s latest resupply mission. Other experiments will build up layers of human tissue through 3-D printing, grow moss as a potential food source in zero-G, and investigate new twists in silica deposition that could improve the performance of automobile tires.

A new docking adapter for future commercial space taxis will be delivered as well, along with more mundane supplies such as food and clothing.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX Dragon cargo ship splashes down

Dragon departing

SpaceX’s robotic Dragon cargo spaceship looms above the International Space Station just before its release from the station’s robotic arm. (NASA / CSA Photo / David Saint-Jacques)

A robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today, bringing two tons of scientific experiments and other hardware back to Earth a month after its launch to the International Space Station.

Nearly six hours after the Dragon was released from the space station, NASA and SpaceX reported a “good splashdown” at 2:48 p.m. PT, about 200 miles southwest of Long Beach, Calif.

Among the experiments carried back down from orbit were Biophysics-6, a protein growth experiment that could produce purer pharmaceuticals for cancer treatment and radiation protection; Genes in Space-6, which marked the first experiment to use CRISPR gene-editing tools and could open the way to DNA repair in deep space; and Microalgae Biosynthesis in Microgravity, which studies the effects of zero gravity on an algae that could produce antioxidant supplements for future astronaut diets.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers anomaly during test

Crew Dragon
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is hauled aboard a recovery ship at the end of a mission to the International Space Station in March. (SpaceX Photo)

SpaceX suffered a setback in preparations for its first crewed launch to the International Space Station today when one of its Crew Dragon spacecraft experienced an anomaly during an engine test firing in Florida.

No injuries were reported, but the anomaly threw up a huge pillar of smoke from SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 during testing of the Dragon’s Super Draco thrusters. The static-fire test was being conducted in preparation for an in-flight abort test.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX Crew Dragon splashes down to end test run

SpaceX Crew Dragon splashdown
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship hits the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for splashdown. (NASA via YouTube)

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean today, ending a six-day uncrewed test run preparing the way for astronaut trips to the International Space Station later this year.

Scorch marks were visible on the side of the 27-foot-long craft as it descended at the end of four red-and-white parachutes and hit the water at 5:45 a.m. PT. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said the hypersonic plunge through the atmosphere was his “biggest concern,” but the capsule survived intact.

The Dragon looked like a giant toasted marshmallow as it was pulled up onto its “nest” on SpaceX’s recovery ship, about 200 miles out from Florida’s Atlantic coast. The ship, GO Searcher, will bring the spacecraft back to shore for inspection.

The last time a crew-capable spaceship splashed down in the Atlantic was 50 years ago, at the end of NASA’s Apollo 9 mission.

After today’s splashdown, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave a shout-out to predecessors going back more than a decade, crediting them for setting up a commercial crew program aimed at filling the gap left by the space shuttle fleet’s retirement in 2011.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Crew Dragon makes first space station stopover

Crew Dragon
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is docked to the International Space Station. (NASA TV via YouTube)

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship docked with the International Space Station for the first time today, marking a successful uncrewed rehearsal of the procedure that astronauts will go through when they make their first arrival with the next flight.

The 27-foot-long spacecraft made contact with a docking adapter on the space station’s Harmony module at 2:51 a.m. PT, as the station flew 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean just north of New Zealand. That “soft docking” was the first step in an hours-long procedure to latch the Crew Dragon securely to the station, hook up power and data connections, and clear the way for hatch opening.

“Congratulations to all of the teams on a successful docking,” NASA astronaut Anne McClain radioed from the station. The news was greeted with cheers at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Crew Dragon makes its (uncrewed) maiden flight

SpaceX Crew Dragon launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending its first Crew Dragon spaceship skyward with a spacesuit-wearing mannequin seated inside. (SpaceX Photo)

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was sent into space atop a Falcon 9 rocket tonight, beginning a crucial test of a spaceship that’s destined to carry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Liftoff took place right on time at 2:49 a.m. ET March 2 (11:49 p.m. PT March 1) from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the origin point for the last shuttle mission as well as for trips to the moon in the Apollo era.

Within minutes, the Falcon 9’s second stage put the uncrewed capsule into orbit, while the first-stage booster made a successful at-sea landing on a drone ship stationed hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

The late-night event, watched by hundreds of onlookers near the Florida launch site and thousands of webcast witnesses, kicked off the first orbital flight of a privately built spaceship designed to carry humans.

Get the full story on GeekWire.