Tag: Commercial Crew

NASA Announces First Astronaut Selections for Commercial Crew

NASA Announces First Astronaut Selections for Commercial Crew

Image Credit : NASA NASA has announced its selection of the first four astronauts which will fly under the Commercial Crew program. Given the last two weeks and the inclusive results regarding the CRS-7 mishap investgation relayed by Elon Musk earlier this week, the announcement comes as a refreshing bit of forward looking news. July […]

SpaceX CRS-7 Mission Set For Sunday Morning Liftoff

SpaceX CRS-7 Mission Set For Sunday Morning Liftoff

The SpaceX CRS-7 cargo mission to the International Space Station has been moved from Friday to Sunday, June 28th with a new liftoff time of 10:21 AM EDT from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40. If liftoff, which must take place exactly on time, is delayed for any reason, a backup slot on Monday the 29th is reserved. […]

Senate Committee Slashes Commercial Crew, Space Technology

Senate Committee Slashes Commercial Crew, Space Technology

Last week, a Senate Appropriations Committee “marked up” the FY 2016 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill which funds among other things, NASA.  For supporters of several NASA programs, including Commercial Crew, it was a simply put, a very bad day. Despite repeated impassioned pleas from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to fully fund Commercial Crew at the requested […]

NASA Issues First Commercial Crew Flight Orders From Boeing

NASA Issues First Commercial Crew Flight Orders From Boeing

NASA announced late yesterday that it has issued the first task orders for crew rotation flights under its Commercial Crew program. The order went to Boeing, but as the press release included below makes clear, that does not necessarily mean the first flight will go to Boeing as well. In parsing previous statements, the agency […]

Posted in: Congress, NASA
SpaceX Pad Abort Test On Board View

SpaceX Pad Abort Test On Board View

In case you missed it, last week SpaceX released new camera footage from its successful May 6th Pad Abort Test of the Commercial Crew version of the Dragon spacecraft.

Congress Makes it Rain for SLS; Commercial Crew Not So Much

Congress Makes it Rain for SLS; Commercial Crew Not So Much

Yesterday, a House Appropriations subcommittee approved a draft NASA FY 2016 funding bill. As expected, the bill was set at the same overall funding level as that offered up by the Administration, at $18.592 billion. To that extent, the bill is non-controversial, but that is also about as far as it goes. Once again, the […]

Posted in: Congress, NASA, SLS / Orion
With Brilliant Pad Abort Test, SpaceX Sets the Stage for American Space Launch Renaissance

With Brilliant Pad Abort Test, SpaceX Sets the Stage for American Space Launch Renaissance

4 Frames of Pad Abort Test : Image Credit NASA SpaceX took a major step towards regaining U.S. domestic crew launch capability today with a successful Pad Abort Test of its Commercial Crew Dragon capsule. The test widow was originally scheduled to open at 7:00 AM EDT, but was subsequently moved back two hours to […]

SpaceX Pad Abort Test Preview

SpaceX Pad Abort Test Preview

Image Credit: SpaceX NASA and SpaceX held a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center this morning to preview next week’s Pad Abort Test for the Commercial Crew Dragon capsule. SpaceX was represented by V.P. of Mission Assurance Hans Koenigsmann, and NASA by SpaceX Commercial Crew parter manager John Cowart. The test, which had been […]

Posted in: NASA, SpaceX
Boeing, ULA Break Ground on Commercial Crew Access Tower

Boeing, ULA Break Ground on Commercial Crew Access Tower

Artists Conception of Boeing/ULA Commercial Crew Tower / Image Credit: ULA From NASA.GOV “Boeing and United Launch Alliance teams held a ceremonial groundbreaking Feb. 20 to begin construction on the first new crew access structure at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in decades. The preparations will enable Space Launch Complex 41 to host astronauts and […]

NASA FY 2016 Budget Request Draws Battle Lines Over Commercial Crew

NASA FY 2016 Budget Request Draws Battle Lines Over Commercial Crew

On Monday, the Obama Administration announced its proposed budget for FY 2016, a $4 trillion dollar (officially $3.999) spending tally which is certain to be contested by the new Republican Congress. As part of the day’s events, NASA Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Radzanowski presented the space agency’s own $18.5 billion dollar slice of the […]

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