Category: NASA

  • SpaceX completes Crewed Dragon mission

    This morning the first Crewed Dragon mission came to an end with a successful splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The spacecraft which was launched last Saturday spent five days docked to the International Space Station during which time the crew spent time unloading and loading cargo and performing tests and inspections. The hatches between the…

  • Hatches Open on Crew Dragon

    In another critical milestone the hatches between the International Space Station and Crewed Dragon were opened at 8:07 am EST today. We were also treated to amazing views from inside the Dragon vehicle as the hatches were opened, the first time for a capsule docked to the station. Over the next few days the crew…

  • Crewed Dragon successfully Docks to ISS

    Following a 27 hour journey to the International Space Station to crewed Dragon spacecraft has successfully docked to the International Docking Adapter on the station. During the docking, a number of tests were performed to ensure the system was working as needed and once those were complete the vehicle completed the automated docking at 6:03…

  • SpaceX Launches Crewed Dragon

    At 2:49 am EST today SpaceX launched the first of their Crewed Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station. As this was the first launch of the spacecraft there were no crew members onboard however the vehicle is heavily instrumented and does carry a dummy called Ripley which will allow SpaceX and…

  • SpaceX launches Dragon for CRS-16 mission

    At 1:16 pm EST today a Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40 carrying a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station for there CRS-16 mission.  The Dragon capsule used for this launch was previously flown on the CRS-10 mission. 10 minutes later the Dragon capsule was delivered to…

  • Soyuz MS-11 launches and docks successfully

    Just over seven weeks after the MS-10 launch failed to reach space Russia resumed crewed launches today with the successful launch and docking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft today. The launch lifted off at 6:31 am EST and successfully docked at 12:34 pm EST just four orbits later.  Once the leak checks are completed the…

  • Soyuz MS-10 aborts after launch, lands safely

    What had become almost a routine process for Russia’s space program ran into an issue today when the launch of two crew members cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague aborted shortly after the first stage booster separation. The two crew members were on their way to the International Space Station (ISS) and the flight…

  • ULA launches NASA’s ICESat2

    Early this morning United Launch Alliance successfully launched NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satelite 2 (ICESat2). The launch was slightly delayed due to an issue with the bottle temperatures during the countdown. This issue was quickly resolved and the mission completed successfully. This was the final launch of the venerable Delta II which has…

  • ULA launches NASA’s Solar Parker Probe

    United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched NASA’s Solar Parker Probe on their Delta IV Heavy rocket.  Today was the second attempt to liftoff proceeded smoothly for an on-time lifted off at 3:31 am EDT. The first attempt yesterday was delayed twice before a scrub was called when a new issue occurred at T-1:55m and counting with…

  • Further delays to JWST

    This week NASA announced further delays to the James Webb Space Telescope which was originally supposed to launch this year and has now been delayed to Now Earlier Than (NET) 2021. The delays which have been caused by several factors from human error during construction/testing, design complexity and basically poor management of the project are…