SpaceX Says it Will Fly 2 People to Moon Next Year

SpaceX said Monday it will fly two people to the moon next year, a feat not attempted since NASA’s Apollo heyday close to half a century ago. Tech billionaire Elon Musk – the company’s founder and chief executive officer – announced the surprising news barely a week after launching his first rocket from NASA’s legendary moon pad.

Musk’s SpaceX Plans 2018 Flight Circling Moon With Civilians

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plans to send two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year as it continues to work with NASA for a planned crewed mission to the International Space Station. The passengers, who each paid a “significant deposit,” will undergo health and fitness tests and begin initial training later this year, the company said in a blog post Monday.

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule arrives at the space station

The Canadarm 2 reaches out to capture the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and prepare it to be pulled into its port on the International Space Station on April. The A day after aborting an attempted docking, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station Thursday and was captured by the station’s robotic arm while flying over Australia.

SpaceX Launches Supply Rocket From Historic Apollo Pad

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched its second rocket in as many months on Sunday, bringing it a 10th of the way to its goal of deploying 20 to 24 rockets this year. The Falcon 9 rocket that launched SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on Sunday separated minutes after liftoff and landed upright on Earth in its designated area.

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Over the next 30 years, says ULA, America will put dozens, scores, even hundreds of explorers into the region bounded by Earth and its Moon, to live and work there long-term. ULA calls the project its “Cislunar 1000 Vision” to put 1,000 astronauts in orbit.

SpaceX launches first rocket since explosion in Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Saturday and placed a constellation of satellites in orbit, marking the company’s first launch since a fireball engulfed a similar rocket on a Florida launch pad more than four months ago. The two-stage rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:54 a.m. carrying a payload for Iridium Communications Inc., which is replacing its entire global network with 70 next-generation satellites.

Air-Launched Orbital Rockets: Orbital ATK Shows Virgin Galactic How It’s Done

For years, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has been trying to invent a better way to launch rockets into space. Instead of launching from Earth in a fiery blast and a cloud of dust, Virgin Galactic aims to carry a “SpaceShipTwo” spaceship into the stratosphere, strapped to the belly of a “WhiteKnightTwo” mothership — then detach the former from the latter, and rocket to 62 miles above sea level.

First Female Shuttle Commander Remembers John Glenn

Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins hailed the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth as a very wise and mission-oriented person she aspired to be like. “When I was a child, I read about the Mercury astronauts, I read about the Gemini astronauts and John Glenn of course was such a wonderful role model.