Category: Space
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Dragon Berthed to ISS
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully arrived at the International Space Station this morning completing a two day journey which started with the picture perfect launch on Tuesday. ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti controlled the ISS robotic arm and captured of Dragon at 6:55 am EDT. Mission control then manoveured the spacecraft to the Berthing which was…
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SpaceX Landing Attempt
For the second time SpaceX attempted to land a Falcon 9 first stage on the Autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) named “Just Read the Instructions”. For this attempt the rocket got very close but didn’t survive the attempt, the first time the rocket tipped over just before landing causing it to fall over the side.…
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SpaceX CRS-6 mission lifts off
SpaceX completed it’s fourth launch of 2015 with the liftoff of the CRS-6 Dragon capsule towards the International Space Station. SpaceX confirmed that after separation from the second stage the Dragon spacecraft successfully deployed it’s Solar Array’s and is now heading towards the International Space Station. It is scheduled to arrive at approximately 7:00 a.m. EDT on…
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Will ULA’s Vulcan bring down SpaceX
Almost as soon as United Launch Alliance’s Tory Bruno announced the new Vulcan rocket system did articles start to appear stating that it “would bring down SpaceX”. One from CNN also incorrectly stated that SpaceX aborted the landing of the first stage yesterday. While that may be the goal of ULA it is way too…
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ULA announces new Launch System
Today United Launch Alliance announced there next generation launch system named Vulcan. ULA’s Tory Bruno announced that the new launch system will be rolled out in multiple steps. The first step will be the replacement first stage, followed later by a new upper stage. The first stage of the rocket will be powered by two…
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SpaceX CRS-6 launch aborted due to Weather constraint
Today’s launch of a Falcon 9 carrying SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted two minutes before liftoff today due to weather constraints. A storm cell with Anvil clouds came too close to the launch pad during the countdown. Currently weather looks like there is a 50% chance of constraint for an…
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Soyuz TMA-16M arrives at International Space Station
Following a six hour four orbit chase of the International Space Station (ISS) which began with a picture perfect launch this afternoon the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft completed it’s journey with a successful docking. The crews then performed leak checks to ensure the vehicles were correctly linked before opening the hatches allowing Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Korniyenko…
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ISS One Year Mission begins
The first one year mission on the International Space Station begun this afternoon with the launch of the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Following a smooth countdown the three crew members Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Korniyenko of the Russia Federal Space Agency and Scott Kelly of NASA lifted off at 3:42 p.m. EDT. Once…
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The Little Rover that Could continues to impress
Eleven years ago the Mars Opportunity Rover landed on the surface of the planet for a planned 90 sol (Mars day) mission, nearly 4000 sols later the rover is still operating. This week it achieved a another significant milestone becoming the first rover to complete the equivalent of a marathon driving across the surface of…
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Delta 4 launches latest GPS satellite
In the first of six launches scheduled over the next four days a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying the latest Global Positioning Satellite (GPS). The satellite is the ninth Block 2F to be launched and was successfully placed into orbit following the on-time launch. Below are some screen…