Bookmarks (14) clear filters

Starship launches have become a regular occurrence at SpaceX's rocket-development facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. For the second time this month, the company is preparing to fly an advanced prototype of its next spaceship.Called Starship serial No. 11, or SN11, the prototype could launch as early as Tuesday. It's s...

Summary List PlacementUpdate: The SN10 rocket flew six miles high and landed in one piece on Wednesday. About ten minutes later, it exploded on the landing pad. Read more in our story. SpaceX plans to rocket its latest Starship prototype tens of thousands of feet into the air on Wednesday afternoon. The challenge is landing it back on the ground — that maneuver has ended...

Summary List PlacementSpaceX rocketed four astronauts into Earth's orbit on Sunday, kicking off its most ambitious spaceflight yet for NASA. The mission, called Crew-1, is set to bring Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker of NASA, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, to the International Space Station. They're scheduled to stay there for six months, constituting the longest human...

Summary List Placement Under the cover of darkness, four astronauts departed planet Earth on Sunday in SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship. The astronauts — Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Victor Glover of NASA, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency — launched from Cape Canaveral at 7:27 p.m. ET, bound for the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon capsule they're riding in detached...

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley just completed a crucial test flight of SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spaceship. The men splashed the space capsule into the Gulf of Mexico at 2:48 p.m. ET off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, following a risky plunge through Earth's atmosphere. NASA's administrator said the mission marks "the next era in human spaceflight," since the agency is now...

In May, SpaceX made history by launching its first people — two NASA astronauts — aboard the company's new Crew Dragon vehicle. The ship and its crew, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, are set to undock from the International Space Station on Saturday night. If the procedure goes well, the men will fly away and prepare for scorching, speedy fall through Earth's atmosphere on...

NASA on Saturday gave SpaceX a "go" to undock the company's first crewed space mission, called Demo-2, and land it on Sunday evening. Hurricane Isaias complicated original plans to return two astronauts to Earth aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship in the Atlantic Ocean. Elon Musk's aerospace company may now try to splash down NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in the Gulf of...

NASA is rushing to return astronauts to the moon's surface in 2024 with a program called Artemis. A spaceship and rocket system is already being built to fly crews to the moon. However, NASA started a competition between private companies to make and operate viable lunar-landing hardware for the agency. SpaceX, Dynetics, and Blue Origin are NASA's top candidates for the job. The companies...

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to become the first people to rocket into space from US soil since the shuttle program ended in 2011. Behnken and Hurley will climb aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon on Wednesday, May 27 and — weather permitting —lift off at 4:33 pm ET from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. If all goes well, the...

SpaceX just completed a "risky" and explosive test that was designed to show its Crew Dragon capsule can whisk astronauts to safety in the event of a rocket failure. The company's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10:30 a.m. ET but was intentionally shut down about 84 seconds into its flight. Although the rocket blew up soon afterward, the Crew Dragon (with no people...

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has posted new details about Starship: a fully reusable and potentially industry-upending rocket system that may land the first people on Mars. In September, Musk unveiled the first 16-story prototype. However, a pressure test in November caused the Starship to partly explode, shooting its giant domed bulkhead hundreds of feet into the air. Over the weekend, Musk shared photos and...

Boeing safely landed its first CST-100 Starliner spaceship, named "Calypso," in New Mexico on Sunday. No astronauts flew aboard the Starliner. The mission was designed to show the vehicle, which NASA funded through its Commercial Crew Program, is safe to fly astronauts. But the Starliner suffered a major glitch with a clock shortly after launch, causing it to veer off-course. Boeing rescued the mission,...

Boeing launched its new CST-100 Starliner spaceship for NASA astronauts into orbit for the first time on Friday, though the maiden flight suffered a major glitch. The uncrewed vehicle was supposed to dock with the International Space Station on Saturday morning. However, the Starliner began flying wildly off-course shortly after separating from its rocket ride. Officials couldn't immediately say what happened, but a clock...

Elon Musk on Saturday presented SpaceX's newest plan to develop a super-heavy launch system called Starship. Starship is a roughly 40-story rocket, designed to send up to 100 people to the surface of Mars. Musk delivered his talk in front of a smaller prototype called Starship Mark 1. Musk envisions each Starship as a low-cost, reusable rocket. In an ideal world, a single Starship...