- SpaceX conducts successful launch test
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Cape Canaveral - SpaceX took another step towards history Thursday.
The commercial company conducted a successful launch readiness test.
The dress rehearsal took place at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon space capsule on top went all the way through a countdown, complete with fueling, right before the engines would fire.
It's a milestone as the outfit is attempting to become the first commercial company partnering with NASA to launch and link up with the International Space Station.
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- Space Florida seeks OK for KSC projects
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Space Florida today will seek approval to spend more than $10 million to renovate a former shuttle hangar at Kennedy Space Center, modernize a Cape Canaveral launch pad and update the state’s space master plan.
During a meeting in Tallahassee, board members also will consider a proposal that would give the agency title to a $100 million facility being built to house the retired shuttle orbiter Atlantis at the KSC Visitor Complex, a financing arrangement that helps the complex’s operator.
If approved, $5 million would start work to ready Kennedy’s Orbiter Processing Facility-3 and Processing Control Center for commercial use by The Boeing Co., which plans to assemble commercial crew capsules there.
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- Robonaut Tripped Up During Station Tests
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The first humanoid robot to fly in space went through a workout aboard the International Space Station today, but the checkout was halted after a few minor problems cropped up.
Working in the U.S. Destiny laboratory, outpost commander Mike Fossum took part in motion tests aimed at exercising Robonaut's hands, neck and wrists. However, the tests were stopped when neck and wrist movements were not carried out as originally planned.
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- Air Force Aims To Add 380 Jobs On Space Coast
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The U.S. Air Force will increase the number of civilian jobs at Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by almost 400, the office of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said today.
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- Excalibur Almaz joins commercial crew program
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NASA's roster of partners developing commercial vehicles to fly astronauts has expanded to include Houston-based
Excalibur Almaz, Inc., which plans to fly upgraded versions of
capsules originally designed to serve Soviet military space stations.
The new partners signed a
Space Act Agreement that includes no NASA funding but allows collaboration between engineering teams.
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- NASA on the hunt for new crop of astronauts
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NASA next month will begin recruiting another group of candidates who think they have the right stuff for spaceflight.
The agency today announced it would open applications in early November for an astronaut class to be named in 2013.
NASA says the new astronaut class could participate in long-duration flights to the International Space Station or eventual exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
But applications will be submitted during a period of extreme uncertainty about NASA's human spaceflight program.
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- NASA irons out details with space designers
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COCOA BEACH — NASA and space industry partners met Tuesday to discuss how they’ll develop commercial systems for flying astronauts, covering details ranging from crew safety to who would provide the astronauts’ food.
The meetings at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront hotel followed up last month’s release of roughly 300 updated requirements NASA plans to enforce for the commercial rockets and spacecraft that it hopes will safely ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station by late 2016.
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- NASA Awards Design Contracts At KSC
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NASA this week awarded two architectural design contracts for work aimed at building or modifying facilities or infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center.
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- NASA: Falling Satellite Splashed Down In Pacific
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Any charred wreckage that survived the uncontrolled reentry of a defunct NASA atmospheric research satellite today almost certainly rained down on remote areas of the Pacific Ocean, officials said.
NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite reentered the atmosphere between 11:23 p.m. Friday and 1:09 a.m. today, following a ground track that passed over the eastern coast of Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, Canada and the North Atlantic Ocean and then the western edge of Africa, officials said.
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- Dead satellite expected to return to Earth with a bang on Friday
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What goes up, must come down. So NASA officials predict 6.2 tons of defunct satellite will make a fiery re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere sometime from Thursday to Saturday.
Debris from the space agency’s defunct Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) poses a 1-in-3,200 risk of hitting someone, according to a space agency analysis.
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- Commercial crew contracts to change
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NASA today told industry partners it would abandon the use of Space Act Agreements in the next phase of the program developing commercial crew taxis, despite many companies' preference for them.
"We've made our decision and we recognize that not everyone will agree with it, but we're at the point where we had to make one and move forward,” Brent Jett, deputy director of the Commercial Crew Program office, said during a meeting at Kennedy Space Center.
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- Ultrasecret satellite spy shop NRO turns 50
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WASHINGTON — As it turns 50, the ultra-secretive National Reconnaissance Office is putting a multibillion-dollar misstep behind it and casting its spy satellites on new enemies, from al-Qaida bomb planters to North Korean nuclear engineers, according to its chief.
The agency has launched six satellites in seven months, “the best we’ve done in about 25 years,” said director Bruce Carlson, ticking off what he saw as milestones during rare comments Thursday to reporters.
Data gathered from the NRO’s Gorgon Stare of satellites — named for the mythological gaze that could turn a person to stone — was hailed as key to helping plan the Navy SEAL raid against Osama bin Laden and to guiding NATO and rebel forces in Libya, Carlson said.
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- NASA says space station may be evacuated in November
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The International Space Station may have to start operating without a crew in November if Russian engineers don't figure out soon what caused a recent rocket failure, NASA officials announced Monday.
The unmanned Russina cargo ship Progress 44 crashed just after its Aug. 24 launch to deliver 2.9 tons of supplies to the orbiting lab. The failure was caused by a problem with the Progress' Soyuz rocket, which is similar to the one Russia uses to launch its crew-carrying vehicle, which is also called Soyuz, to the station.
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- Historic Shuttle Day Paves Way for 'Horrendous' Traffic
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Going to see program's finale? Then, keep the day open, because it'll be a long one.
Tourism officials predict Friday's final shuttle launch may attract as many as 1 million visitors, practically tripling Brevard County's population and triggering one of its most "horrendous" traffic jams in history.
Atlantis is scheduled to blast off from pad 39A at 11:26 a.m. as NASA's 135th and crowning shuttle mission. Children are on summer vacation, and throngs of Central Florida residents -- from space geeks to casual fans -- will swamp prime observation areas. NASA has also issued an estimate of 500,000 to 750,000 spectators.
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- Kennedy Space Center Changing, not Vanishing
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Rocket launches, new programs expected to fill void.
In a new TV ad promoting Space Coast tourism, unmanned Delta IV and Falcon 9 rockets blast off and a cruise ship sets sail as representatives from three companies proclaim, "We launch from here."
The ad reflects the new reality that after shuttle Atlantis blasts off Friday, the area won't launch humans again for at least several years.
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