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      SpaceX’s workhorse launch pad now has the accoutrements for astronauts

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 20 March - 23:47

    SpaceX’s workhorse launch pad now has the accoutrements for astronauts

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    Upgrades at SpaceX's most-used launch pad in Florida will get a trial run Thursday with the liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon cargo ship heading for the International Space Station.

    SpaceX's Cargo Dragon spacecraft is set for launch at 4:55 pm EDT (20:55 UTC) Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission, known as CRS-30, is SpaceX's 30th resupply mission to the space station since 2012.

    The automated Dragon supply ship will take off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, then head for a month-long stay at the International Space Station, where it will deliver more than 6,000 pounds of hardware, fresh food, and experiments for the lab's seven-person crew.

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      A hunk of junk from the International Space Station hurtles back to Earth

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 9 March - 00:10

    In March 2021, the International Space Station's robotic arm released a cargo pallet with nine expended batteries.

    Enlarge / In March 2021, the International Space Station's robotic arm released a cargo pallet with nine expended batteries. (credit: NASA)

    A bundle of depleted batteries from the International Space Station careened around Earth for almost three years before falling out of orbit and plunging back into the atmosphere Friday. Most of the trash likely burned up during reentry, but it's possible some fragments may have reached Earth's surface intact.

    Larger pieces of space junk regularly fall to Earth on unguided trajectories, but they're usually derelict satellites or spent rocket stages. This involved a pallet of batteries from the space station with a mass of more than 2.6 metric tons (5,800 pounds). NASA intentionally sent the space junk on a path toward an unguided reentry.

    Naturally self-cleaning

    Sandra Jones, a NASA spokesperson, said the agency "conducted a thorough debris analysis assessment on the pallet and has determined it will harmlessly reenter the Earth’s atmosphere." This was, by far, the most massive object ever tossed overboard from the International Space Station.

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      The world’s most traveled crew transport spacecraft will launch again tonight

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 4 March - 03:18

    A Falcon 9 rocket with SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft stands on Launch Complex 39A ahead of a launch attempt Sunday night.

    Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket with SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft stands on Launch Complex 39A ahead of a launch attempt Sunday night. (credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

    SpaceX's oldest Crew Dragon spacecraft is about to launch on its fifth mission to the International Space Station, and engineers are crunching data to see if the fleet of Dragons can safely fly as many as 15 times.

    It has been five years since SpaceX launched the first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the space station, and nearly four years since SpaceX's first astronaut mission took off in May 2020 . Since then, SpaceX has put its clan of Dragons to use ferrying astronauts and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit.

    Now, it's already time to talk about extending the life of the Dragon spaceships. SpaceX and NASA, which shared the cost of developing the Crew Dragon, initially certified each capsule for five flights. Crew Dragon Endeavour , the first in the Dragon fleet to fly astronauts, is about to launch on its fifth mission to the space station.

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      Russia acknowledges continuing air leak from its segment of space station

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 28 February - 22:16


    Roscosmos admission follows Nasa comments that leak is growing but both agencies say there is no danger to ISS crew

    Russian space officials have acknowledged a continuing air leak from the Russian segment of the International Space Station, but said it poses no danger to its crew.

    The Roscosmos state corporation said that specialists were monitoring the leak and the crew “regularly conducts work to locate and fix possible spots of the leak”.

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      Maybe, just maybe, Boeing’s Starliner will finally fly astronauts this spring

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 27 February - 20:42

    Boeing's Starliner crew module for the upcoming Crew Flight Test was mated with the spacecraft's service module last year in Florida.

    Enlarge / Boeing's Starliner crew module for the upcoming Crew Flight Test was mated with the spacecraft's service module last year in Florida. (credit: Boeing/Deborah Circelli )

    We've heard this before, but Boeing appears to be a couple of months from finally launching astronauts into orbit aboard the commercial CST-100 Starliner crew capsule.

    It was about two months prior to this mission's previous launch date last July when Boeing and NASA officials decided to put a hold on launch preparations. During their final reviews to certify Starliner for flight nearly a year ago, engineers discovered two technical issues that somehow escaped detection for years.

    One of these issues involved parts of Starliner's parachute deployment system that did not meet required safety specifications. The other was a revelation that Boeing installed flammable tape wrapped around wiring bundles throughout the spacecraft, creating a potential fire hazard. These were the latest in a line of technical problems that have plagued the Starliner program, delaying the new spacecraft's first test flight with astronauts from 2017 until this year.

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      Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Saturday, 17 February - 20:00

    The environmentally friendly LignaSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles

    Japanese scientists have created one of the world’s most unusual spacecraft – a tiny satellite that is made of timber.

    The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer.

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      Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko sets world record for most time spent in space

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 4 February - 19:11

    Russian surpasses compatriot Gennady Padalka after logging more than 878 days at the international space station

    A Russian cosmonaut has set a world record for the most time spent in space on Sunday, after logging more than 878 days or nearly two-and-a-half years.

    As of 8:30GMT, Oleg Kononenko overtook the record set by his compatriot Gennady Padalka, according to Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos. Padalka logged 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds during five space flights before retiring in 2017.

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      Rocket Report: SpaceX at the service of a rival; Endeavour goes vertical

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 2 February - 12:00 · 1 minute

    Space shuttle Endeavour, seen here in protective wrapping, was mounted on an external tank and inert solid rocket boosters at the California Science Center.

    Enlarge / Space shuttle Endeavour, seen here in protective wrapping, was mounted on an external tank and inert solid rocket boosters at the California Science Center. (credit: California Science Center )

    Welcome to Edition 6.29 of the Rocket Report! Right now, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is the only US launch vehicle offering crew or cargo service to the International Space Station. The previous version of Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket retired last year, forcing that company to sign a contract with SpaceX to launch its Cygnus supply ships to the ISS. And we're still waiting on United Launch Alliance's Atlas V (no fault of ULA) to begin launching astronauts on Boeing's Starliner crew capsule to the ISS. Basically, it's SpaceX or bust. It's a good thing that the Falcon 9 has proven to be the most reliable rocket in history.

    As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

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    Virgin Galactic flies four passengers to the edge of space. Virgin Galactic conducted its first suborbital mission of 2024 on January 26 as the company prepares end flights of its current spaceplane, Space News reports . The flight, called Galactic 06 by Virgin Galactic, carried four customers for the first time, along with its two pilots, on a suborbital hop over New Mexico aboard the VSS Unity rocket plane. Previous commercial flights had three customers on board, along with a Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer. The customers, which Virgin Galactic didn't identify until after the flight, held US, Ukrainian, and Austrian citizenship.

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      Axiom, SpaceX launch third all-private crew mission to space station

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 19 January - 04:08

    A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center to begin the Ax-3 commercial crew mission.

    Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center to begin the Ax-3 commercial crew mission. (credit: Stephen Clark/Ars Technica)

    For the third time, an all-private crew is heading for the International Space Station. The four-man team lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday, kicking off a 36-hour pursuit of the orbiting research laboratory. Docking is scheduled for Saturday morning.

    This two-week mission is managed by Houston-based Axiom Space, which is conducting private astronaut missions to the ISS as a stepping stone toward building a fully commercial space station in low-Earth orbit by the end of this decade.

    Axiom's third mission, called Ax-3, launched at 4:49 pm EST (21:49 UTC) Thursday. The four astronauts were strapped into their seats inside SpaceX's Dragon Freedom spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 rocket. This is the 12th time SpaceX has launched a human spaceflight mission, and could be the first of five Dragon crew missions this year.

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