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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Nov 15 (Reuters) - Ground teams at Kennedy Space Center prepared on Tuesday for a third try at launching NASA's towering, next-generation moon rocket, the debut flight of the U.S. space agency's Artemis lunar program, 50 years after Apollo's last moon mission. NASA flight-readiness crews were eager for success after 10 weeks beset by engineering difficulties, two hurricanes and two trips from the spacecraft's hangar to its launch pad. Two previous launch attempts, on Aug. 29 and Sept. 3, were aborted because of fuel line leaks and other technical problems that NASA has since resolved. While moored to its launch pad last week, the rocket endured fierce winds and rains from Hurricane Nicole, forcing a two-day flight postponement. NASA defends the program as a boon to space exploration that has generated tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in commerce.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Nov 16 (Reuters) - NASA's towering next-generation moon rocket blasted off from Florida early on Wednesday on its debut flight, a crewless voyage inaugurating the U.S. space agency's Artemis exploration program 50 years after the final Apollo moon mission. [1/3] NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule, lifts off from launch complex 39-B on the unmanned Artemis1 mission to the moon at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Joe Skipper 1 2 3Addressing mission control moments after liftoff, Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson saluted the hard work of her colleagues. SPACEFLIGHT STRESS TESTGetting the SLS-Orion spacecraft off the ground was a key hurdle for the ambitious Artemis program. NASA's Office of Inspector General has projected total Artemis costs at $93 billion by 2025.

☆ Storm Nicole churns toward Bahamas en route to Florida and hurricane status
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Brian Ellsworth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Beachgoers are shown as tropical storm Nicole approaches the state in Miami Beach, Florida, U.S., November 8, 2022. A hurricane warning was posted for Grand Bahama Island, Bimini, the Berry Islands and the Abacos in the northwestern corner of the West Indies archipelago nation, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. A 240-mile expanse of Florida's Atlantic shoreline from Boca Raton north to around Flagler Beach was likewise placed under a hurricane warning. "It's going to take more than a Category 1 hurricane or so to really move stuff and have them flying around." Forecasters said Nicole would likely sweep across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday.

☆ Boeing's first crewed Starliner spaceflight slips to April 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NASA said "the date adjustment deconflicts visiting spacecraft traffic at the space station as NASA and Boeing work together to achieve flight readiness." Scrutinizing Starliner's parachutes and software are the two most time-consuming issues NASA and Boeing are dealing with ahead of the crewed flight test, NASA's commercial spaceflight director Phil McAlister said on Monday. Boeing developed Starliner under a roughly $4.2 billion fixed-price NASA contract awarded in 2014, which includes six operational Starliner missions. NASA has a similar contract with SpaceX, whose rival Crew Dragon capsule has flown six crewed flights for the agency since 2020. Illustrating difficulties Boeing faces on fixed-price contract programs, the company's Starliner contract has swelled to roughly $4.5 billion, and setbacks with the spacecraft have cost Boeing nearly $900 million since 2019.

The space company was valued at more than $1 billion when private equity firm AE Industrial Partners became its controlling shareholder in March. A FireFly spokesperson declined to comment when asked about the fundraising, as did a spokesperson for AE Industrial Partners. It is among a handful of U.S. space companies vying to launch small satellites into space. SpaceX's bigger Falcon 9 rocket costs $62 million and Rocket Lab's smaller Electron rocket costs $7 million. Venture capital investments in space companies fell 44% from a year earlier, according to a quarterly report from VC firm Space Capital.

☆ Elon Musk's SpaceX expects first Starship launch to orbit this year -NASA
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Starship prototypes are pictured at the SpaceX South Texas launch site in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., May 22, 2022. Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has sought for years to send its towering next-generation rocket system into orbit from the company's private launch facilities in Texas, where it has only launched prototypes of Starship's upper half some 6 miles (10 km) high to demonstrate landing attempts. The December mission will test the entire system for the first time, involving the company's 230-foot (70-meter) Super Heavy booster to lift the 160-foot (50-meter) Starship spacecraft into orbit. NASA in 2021 picked SpaceX's Starship to land humans on the moon around 2025 for the first time since 1972. That mission, under a roughly $3 billion contract, requires several spaceflight tests in advance that could delay the 2025 moon landing mission.

☆ Russia's anti-satellite threat tests laws of war in space
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Such an act during the war in Ukraine could sharply escalate tensions between Russia and the United States. And tens of thousands of communications devices in Ukraine rely on U.S. satellite communications giant Iridium's (IRDM.O) satellite network. "If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I'd imagine it would quickly make space unusable," Desch said. COMPLICATED CALCULUSWhether a Russian anti-satellite strike would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, such as its prohibition on placing weapons of mass destruction in space, is debatable, lawyers say. SpaceX's Starlink network consists of roughly 3,000 satellites, and there are several dozen commercial U.S. imagery satellites eyeing Russia and Ukraine.

☆ Rocket startup Relativity eyes new products with enlarged 3D printer
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Los Angeles-based startup is targeting year's end for the debut launch of its mostly 3D-printed flagship rocket Terran 1, Tim Ellis told Reuters. Relativity's upgraded 3D printer, the latest in a lineup named Stargate, will primarily be used to build its bigger, next-generation Terran R rocket, he said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"This large-format metal 3D printing ... really means that we're just starting with rockets," Ellis said. The company is working with a nuclear fusion company to use the new 3D printer to print parts of a fusion reactor, Ellis said. Relativity has $1.2 billion worth of Terran R launch contracts so far, he said.

☆ SpaceX rolls out Starlink internet service for private jets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX is expanding its satellite internet unit's foray into in-flight WiFi services with the rollout on Wednesday of Starlink Aviation, offering customers a $150,000 airplane antenna amid mounting competition for airborne connectivity. Starlink, SpaceX's growing network of thousands of internet satellites, will charge customers seeking broadband internet on private jets between $12,500 to $25,000 a month for the service, on top of a one-time $150,000 hardware cost, the company said on its website. Starlink Aviation will begin delivering terminals in mid-2023, it said on its website, with reservations requiring a $5,000 payment. OneWeb on Tuesday announced an agreement with in-flight broadband giant Panasonic Avionics, which offers service to some 70 airlines, to market and sell OneWeb's broadband service to airlines by mid-2023. SpaceX plans to offer Starlink internet connectivity to Hawaiian Airlines planes next year.

☆ Apollo, Gemini astronaut James McDivitt dies at age 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Astronaut and commander James McDivitt shows several days' beard growth during the Apollo 9 mission while onboard the Lunar Module "Spider" in Earth orbit, March 6, 1969. NASA/Handout via REUTERSWASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - James McDivitt, a former U.S. astronaut who commanded some of NASA's earliest and most ambitious missions in space, died in his sleep last week at age 93, NASA said in a statement on Monday night. The fourth mission under Project Gemini, a precursor to NASA's Apollo program, marked McDivitt's first flight to space. McDivitt later joined two astronauts as commander of the Apollo 9 mission, a crucial debut flight test of NASA's Lunar Module that would later land astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Joey Roulette Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Amazon shifts prototype internet satellites to ULA rocket for 2023 launch
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) will launch its first two prototype satellites for a planned internet-from-space constellation in early 2023 using a new rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed (BA.N)(LMT.N) joint venture United Launch Alliance, the companies said Wednesday. Rocket development delays with launch startup ABL Space Systems, which was initially poised to launch the two Amazon satellites by late this year, prompted Amazon to hop aboard ULA's new Vulcan rocket instead as a secondary payload. Amazon has not said when it plans to launch those first operational satellites. ABL built a custom launch adapter and finished other custom work for the Kuiper satellites earlier this year, the company's president Dan Piemont told Reuters in an email. "That work is continuing for future Kuiper launches," he added.

☆ United Launch Alliance's debut Vulcan mission slips to 2023 -CEO
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - United Launch Alliance has pushed the debut launch of its new Vulcan rocket to early 2023 at the request of one of its customers, the company's chief executive said, further delaying a benchmark mission crucial to the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture's launch business. Vulcan, a roughly 200 foot-tall rocket in the final stages of development, will be the centerpiece to ULA's launch business. Vulcan, priced at roughly $110 million per launch, already has some 80 contracted missions lined up. It will compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9, priced roughly $62 million per launch, and Blue Origin's forthcoming New Glenn rocket, which uses the same engines as Vulcan. If Astrobotic's lander is delayed beyond Q1 2023, ULA would replace it with a pickup truck-sized dummy payload in order to meet the narrowing window of time to demonstrate Vulcan for the Space Force.

☆ Hurricane Ian prompts NASA to roll moon rocket off launchpad
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B as it is prepared for launch for the Artemis 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. September 3, 2022. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File PhotoSept 26 (Reuters) - NASA on Monday said it will roll its giant moon rocket off its launchpad in Florida and back to the assembly building to protect the vehicle from an advancing Hurricane Ian, whose strengthening winds are forecast to lash the Kennedy Space Center later this week. “The decision allows time for employees to address the needs of their families and protect the integrated rocket and spacecraft system," NASA said in a statement. Recent tests showed positive signs the leak had been fixed and the rocket would again be ready for another launch attempt. But the latest weather models showing Hurricane Ian approaching Florida prompted new worries over whether the rocket could withstand the storm’s winds.

☆ Sierra Space weighs public offering to help fund space station, president says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Janet Kavandi, president of Sierra Space, scientist and astronaut, attends the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) space exploration conference in Paris, France, September 19, 2022. No private company has built a space station. "It is one of many considerations," Sierra Space President Janet Kavandi said of a public offering, speaking to Reuters at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris. Sierra Space hopes to have the first elements of the station in orbit by about 2027. "I don't think you can overstate its importance," Michael López-Alegría, Axiom's chief astronaut, said of getting their space station to market first.

☆ Exclusive: Saudi Arabia buys pair of SpaceX astronaut seats from Axiom -sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Under the deal, two Saudi astronauts will ride SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule to the space station for a roughly weeklong stay early next year, the sources said. Officials with the Saudi Space Commission, Riyadh's space agency founded in 2018, were not immediately available to comment. The Saudi astronauts will join two previously announced Americans, retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and race car driver and investor John Shoffner, the sources said. Axiom launched its first private mission to the space station in April, sending a four-man crew to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that included a Canadian investor and an Israeli businessman. Axiom's astronaut flight business is crucial experience for the company's broader goals of deploying its own private space station by mid-decade.

☆ Spacesuit battery glitch forces early end to Russian spacewalk
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-17 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - A Russian spacewalk outside the International Space Station ended hours earlier than planned on Wednesday after a cosmonaut discovered an electrical issue with his spacesuit, U.S. and Russian officials said. Artemyev returned to the airlock and connected his suit to the space station's power. Russian flight controllers opted to call off the spacewalk early once Denis Matveev, the other cosmonaut performing the spacewalk, gathered his tools and positioned the robotic arm they had been upgrading back into its normal position. Upon Matveev's return, the spacewalk ended after 4 hours, at 1:54 p.m. Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Chris Reese, Alex Richardson and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NASA's giant U.S. moon rocket emerges for debut launch
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-17 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Aug 16 (Reuters) - NASA's gigantic Space Launch System moon rocket, topped with an uncrewed astronaut capsule, began an hours-long crawl to its launchpad Tuesday night ahead of the behemoth's debut test flight this month. The 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket is scheduled to embark on its first mission to space - without any humans - on Aug. 29. [1/6] NASA’s next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, leaves the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on a slow-motion journey to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 16, 2022. Sitting atop the rocket is NASA's Orion astronaut capsule, built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N). For the Aug. 29 mission, called Artemis 1, the Orion capsule will launch atop the Space Launch System without any humans and orbit the moon before returning to Earth for an ocean splashdown 42 days later.

☆ NASA, Russian space agency sign deal to share space station flights - Roscosmos
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-15 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The NASA logo is seen at Kennedy Space Center ahead of the NASA/SpaceX launch of a commercial crew mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Joe SkipperJuly 15 (Reuters) - NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos have signed a long-sought agreement to integrate flights to the International Space Station, allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S.-made spacecraft in exchange for American astronauts being able to ride on Russia's Soyuz, the agencies said Friday. The two agencies had previously shared astronaut seats on the U.S. shuttle and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The U.S. space agency has said having at least one Russian and one American aboard the space station is crucial to keeping the laboratory running. "Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks," NASA said in a statement on Friday.

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