By Ben Evans, on February 28th, 2019
Falcon 9 on Pad 39A with the first Crew Dragon & the company’s new astronaut walkway. Photo Credit: SpaceX
In the small hours of Saturday morning (2 March), a decade-long effort to restore U.S. human spaceflight launch capability to American soil for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era […]
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By Ben Evans, on February 27th, 2019
Crew Dragon atop its Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A, undergoing testing for the ‘Demo-1’ mission currently scheduled to launch NET March 2, 2019. Photo: SpaceX
If all goes well, later this year America will jointly celebrate not only 50 years since humanity’s first manned landing on the Moon, but also the […]
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By Ben Evans, on January 23rd, 2019
Mike Fincke, pictured during STS-134 in May 2011, has served for several years as head of the Commercial Crew Branch of the Astronaut Office and most recently as assistant to the chief for Commercial Crew. Photo Credit: NASA
Yesterday’s announcement by NASA that astronaut Eric Boe has been removed from the inaugural piloted […]
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By Ben Evans, on July 30th, 2016
The SpaceX Crew Dragon. Photo Credit: Robert Fisher / AmericaSpace
With a little more than a year to go before U.S. astronauts launch aboard a U.S.-built spacecraft, and from U.S. soil, for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era, NASA has ordered its second Post-Certification Mission (PCM) from SpaceX. […]
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By Emily Carney, on January 20th, 2016
From NASA: “NASA’s Commercial Crew astronauts Doug Hurney, Eric Boe, Bob Behnken, and Suni Williams are working closely with Boeing and SpaceX this year as each company works toward flight tests.” Photo Credit: NASA/James Blair
In 2015, both Boeing and SpaceX—NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partners—received orders for spaceflights to restore the United […]
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By Ben Evans, on December 19th, 2015
Boeing’s CST-100 “Starliner” spacecraft is depicted here climbing to orbit. The company will begin flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA as soon as 2017. Image Credit: Boeing
For the second time this year, Boeing has received a Post-Certification Mission (PCM) order from NASA to perform a dedicated […]
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By Ben Evans, on November 21st, 2015
View inside the piloted Crew Dragon, previously known as the “Dragon V-2”. Image Credits: Robert Fisher / AmericaSpace / SpaceX
Both of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program partners—Boeing and SpaceX—now have mission orders to deliver their first long-duration crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years, thereby restoring the […]
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By Ben Evans, on October 3rd, 2015 Atlantis alights on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 5:57 a.m. EDT on 21 July 2011, wrapping up a remarkable 33-mission career. Photo Credit: NASA/Kenny Allen
In the pre-dawn darkness of 21 July 2011, the small black-and-white dot of Atlantis glided smoothly […]
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By Ben Evans, on July 29th, 2015 One of two pressurized domes for the “shell” of the Structural Test Article (STA) of Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft undergoes checkout. Photo Credit: NASA
Less than a year since winning a $4.2 billion slice of the $6.8 billion Commercial Crew transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract—the current phase of NASA’s effort to return U.S. astronauts to […]
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By Andy Sokol, on September 15th, 2013 Photo Credit: Andy Sokol / TurboFox Photography
Last Lightshow: On the rainy eve of the final space shuttle launch, Atlantis sits perched atop the launch pad. In this unusual six-second exposure, a service vehicle rounds a curve toward the pad as its brake lights are reflected in a small roadside puddle.
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