Tag: dragon

Musk Confirms Slow Throttle Valve Doomed Falcon 9 First Stage

Musk Confirms Slow Throttle Valve Doomed Falcon 9 First Stage

Image Credit: SpaceX After first tweeting and then deleting, SpaceX founder Elon Musk confirmed Saturday night that slow response from a thruster valves was the cause of last week’s close but no cigar effort at landing a Falcon 9 first stage at sea. Cause of hard rocket landing confirmed as due to slower than expected […]

Posted in: Uncategorized
Update: (NEW) SpaceX Falcon Landing Video and a Look Ahead

Update: (NEW) SpaceX Falcon Landing Video and a Look Ahead

Video of the landing attempt shot from the ASDS Just Read The Instructions was posted anonymously on vidme. A YouTube version is included below. While it is perhaps silly to attribute human or even animal characteristics to mechanical hardware which is just doing its job, there is something poignant about how hard the cold gas […]

Weather Forces SpaceX CRS-6 Scrub

Weather Forces SpaceX CRS-6 Scrub

For most of the afternoon, it looked as if a steady breeze coming off the Atlantic Ocean would keep a series of storms away from Cape Canaveral and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sitting on the pad at SLC-40. And for a while, they did, as SpaceX made it to three minutes remaining in an […]

Posted in: NASA, SpaceX
SpaceX Predicts 75-80% Chance of Landing Success: Updated

SpaceX Predicts 75-80% Chance of Landing Success: Updated

Update: Whether he is sandbagging, or really just wanted to clarify, SpaceX founder Elon Musk used Twitter to correct media reports (including this one) that cited the odds of successful first stage landing at 75-80%. \ Odds of rocket landing successfully today are still less than 50%. The 80% figure by end of year is […]

Posted in: NASA, SpaceX
Dueling Events for SpaceX and ULA Make for a Major Monday

Dueling Events for SpaceX and ULA Make for a Major Monday

As NASA and SpaceX are counting down to the planned 4:33 PM EDT CRS-6 cargo flight to the International Space Station on Monday, April 13th., United Launch Alliance is counting down to a press conference introducing its new rocket which will be held at nearly the same time. The ULA press conference at which President […]

The Plantary Society’s Orbiting Mars Workshop: Secrecy, But No Falcons

The Plantary Society’s Orbiting Mars Workshop: Secrecy, But No Falcons

Fact, followed by Editorial Opinion. Beginning in 2012, after NASA somewhat reluctantly adopted the Space Launch System architecture dictated by Congress the previous year, America’s space agency has been pushing the the narrative that it is on “A Journey to Mars.” For anyone looking beyond the hype however, it is has been rather clear that […]

Posted in: Mars, NASA
SpaceX CRS-6 Launch Set for April 13

SpaceX CRS-6 Launch Set for April 13

CRS-5 Dragon Awaits Launch :  Image Credit S. Money SpaceX’s next launch, the CRS-6 re-supply mission to the International Space Station, has been moved to Monday, April 13th at 4:33 PM EDT. It has previously been listed as “No Earlier Than” (NET) April 10th on NASA’s launch calendar. No explanation has been given for the […]

Posted in: NASA, SpaceX
For Sierra Nevada and Dream Chaser, the Chase Goes On

For Sierra Nevada and Dream Chaser, the Chase Goes On

Image Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation Sierra Nevada Corporation is keeping the “chase” in its Dream Chaser space plane. On March 17th, the company revealed its proposal for an unmanned version of Dream Chaser intended to compete for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2, or CRS-2 contract. Unlike the version put forward under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, […]

SpaceX Aims for Deep Space and Two Oceans in Less Than Two Hours

SpaceX Aims for Deep Space and Two Oceans in Less Than Two Hours

Image Credit:  S. Money After standing down for a day to wait out bad weather at Cape Canaveral, the four organizations involved the launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory; SpaceX, NOAA, NASA, and the Air Force, are now targeting a Tuesday (February 10th) liftoff at 6:05 PM EST. The range is also available on […]

Posted in: SpaceX
SpaceX, Boeing, Aim for 2017 Crew Flights

SpaceX, Boeing, Aim for 2017 Crew Flights

A press conference held at Johnson Space Center on Monday did not delivery any real surprises regarding NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, but it did fill in a few missing details regarding agreements which have been embargoed since mid-September due Sierra Nevada’s bid protest. It also provided a bit more information about SpaceX’s upcoming plans. Some […]

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