CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – Starliner will send its first astronaut crew into space as early as Monday (May 6), and Mission Control is planning one last major test to prepare for the event. NASA And Boeing Starliner officials worked together at the government agency Johnson Space Center in Houston during an hour-long prelaunch test on … Read more
The launch of two astronauts on a Boeing commercial spacecraft will be a first for the company, but will also return American human spaceflight to a rocket and launch site that hasn’t been used by crews in more than 50 years. The Crew Flight Test (CFT) for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule is ready to fly … Read more
After six decades of launches, the launch of the very last Delta rocket on Tuesday (April 9) marked a change in the way the US sends satellites, interplanetary probes and spacecraft into orbit. United Launch Alliance (ULA) has ignited its final Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch NROL-70, a classified payload for the U.S. National … Read more
Ending an era in American rocketry, United Launch Alliance fired its 16th and final triple-core Delta 4 Heavy Tuesday, launching a secret spy satellite in the last hurray of a legendary rocket family dating back to the beginning of the space age. The Heavy’s three hydrogen-powered RS-68A first stage engines ignited with a stream of … Read more
Astrobotic remains optimistic about its Peregrine lunar lander despite the failure of the probe’s debut mission. Peregine launched the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur rocket on January 8. While the launch went smoothly, Peregrine suffered a propulsion anomaly just hours into its mission, causing a significant propellant leak. It quickly … Read more
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s science newsletter Wonder Theory. To receive it in your inbox, Register for free here. Humans landed on the moon in the late 1960s and 1970s during NASA’s Apollo program using computers that had far less processing power than today’s smartphones. Yet landing on the moon, … Read more
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s science newsletter Wonder Theory. To receive it in your inbox, Register for free here. Humans landed on the moon in the late 1960s and 1970s during NASA’s Apollo program using computers that had far less processing power than today’s smartphones. Yet landing on the moon, … Read more
NEW ORLEANS – It was just two days ago that Peregrine, the inaugural private lander contracted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, brilliantly rocketed into space aboard the Vulcan’s first private flight United Launch Alliance rocket. Just hours into the journey, Peregrine began to fail. Astrobotic, the company behind the spacecraft, continues to provide … Read more
The brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, will lift off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024, for its maiden voyage, carrying the Peregrine Lunar Lander from Astrobotic. The mission, called Cert-1, will also carry the cremated remains of several … Read more
A brand new rocket lifted off early Monday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending a robotic spacecraft to the moon’s surface. No American spacecraft has soft-landed on the moon since 1972. For United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the successful launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket was crucial. Vulcan is … Read more