Category: Commercial
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Dragon at the International Space Station
Following Saturday’s beautiful launch of the Falcon 9 and two days of rendezvous maneuvers the SpaceX Dragon vehicle arrived at the ISS early this morning. This is the sixth time that Dragon has visited the station, once under the COTS development program and five times under the cargo resupply contract (CRS) awarded to SpaceX. The…
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Is US Manned Space Program falling behind?
Since the Space Shuttle completed it’s last flight the US has had to rely on Russia to launch manned missions to the International Space Station, and this will continue for at least two more years. There are currently two countries with the ability to launch manned missions Russia and China, there are five others US,…
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SpaceX CRS-5 mission on it’s way to ISS
Following a smooth countdown this morning the Falcon 9’s engines roared to live to carry the Dragon spacecraft to orbit, Follow successful separation from the second stage the solar array’s deploy and the spacecraft is now heading to the International Space Station to deliver 1.8 metric tonnes of supplies. Elon Musk tweeted two updates on…
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SpaceX CRS-5 delayed to 1/10
The launch of the Falcon 9 carrying Dragon to the International Space Station for the CRS-5 mission has been delayed until 4:47 am EST on Saturday 1/10. The launch was scrubbed on Tuesday with just 90 seconds left in the countdown due to a faulty Z actuator on the second stage. The actuator which is…
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SpaceX CRS-5 launch scrubbed
Today’s launch of the Falcon 9 carrying the CRS-5 mission to the International Space Station. Initial indications show an issue with actuator drift on the spacecraft, assuming it can be resolved by Friday the next attempt will be at 5:09 am EST. Update: Elon Musk tweeted that they are investigating the upper stage Z…
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SpaceX CRS-5 set for launch tomorrow morning
The delayed launch of the SpaceX CRS-5 mission is scheduled for 6:20am EST tomorrow 1/6, the launch will be broadcast live via NASA TV and SpaceX’s livestream page.
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GAO releases statement on Sierra Nevada Bid Protest Decision
The following is a statement from Ralph O. White, Managing Associate General Counsel for Procurement Law at GAO, regarding today’s decision resolving a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corp., B-410485, et al., January 5, 2015. On January 5, 2015, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corp., of Louisville,…
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AJ26 Turbo Pump most likely doomed Cygnus launch
Orbital announced today that the preliminary findings of the Accident Investigation Board (AIB) point to a Turbo pump failure in one of the two AJ26 main engines on the Antares rocket. Because of this Orbital will no longer use the AJ26 engines and will instead accelerate the migration to a new engine on the Antares. Due…