Moon Mission

IT WAS ONE of those neat bits of symmetry that history seems to enjoy. On May 30th, at 15.22 local time, Douglas Hurley, an American astronaut, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on his way to the International Space Station (ISS). The last time Colonel…

IT WAS ONE of those neat bits of symmetry that history seems to enjoy. On May 30th, at 15.22 local time, Douglas Hurley, an American astronaut, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on his way to the International Space Station (ISS). The last time Colonel…

Saturday, May 30th 2020, 4:00 pm - Rocket, spacecraft and astronauts were go for launch, and this time the weather cooperated! After being delayed by weather earlier this week, NASA and SpaceX made history on Saturday. The Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 39A, at Kennedy Space…

NASA Astronauts Doug Hurley, closest, and Bob Behnken simulate their upcoming mission in SpaceX's Crew Dragon training vehicle in Hawthorne.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have trained for years for this moment.They spent, at minimum, hundreds of hours learning the intricacies of…

The Orion and ESM for Artemis I is currently going through testingThe European Space Agency has asked the aerospace company Airbus to build another service module for the Americans' Orion crew capsule.This contract, worth around €250m (£225m), is particularly noteworthy, however.That's because the hardware will be part of the mission…

Image copyright NASA Image caption The Orion and ESM for Artemis I is currently going through testing The European Space Agency has asked the aerospace company Airbus to build another service module for the Americans' Orion crew capsule.This contract, worth around €250m (£225m), is particularly noteworthy, however.That's because the hardware…

NASA is seeking US citizens for an eight-month study on social isolation in preparation for missions to Mars and the moon. The international space agency is preparing for its next spaceflight simulation study and is seeking healthy participants to live together with a small crew in isolation for eight months…

John Raoux/APDoug Loverro's mistake reportedly relates to breaking a rule during Nasa's procurement of Moon landers. (File photo).The head of Nasa's human space flight programme has abruptly resigned after making a "mistake" a week before the first launch of astronauts from US soil for a decade. Doug Loverro was overseeing…

Illustration of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket during the In-Flight Abort Test for Nasa's Commercial Crew Program: SpaceXThe head of NASA's human space flight resigned a week before the first manned launch on US soil in almost a decade, citing a "mistake" reported to be over the…

Moon-mining machinations are perhaps the most grandiose example of space work continuing through the pandemic, but they’re far from the only ones. Few might immediately think of astronauts as essential workers or rocket launches as mandatory for the nation’s survival. But based on the permitted activities of both NASA and…