So what's the big deal about leaving the ISS uncrewed?
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The uncrewed December space mission could have ended in disaster.
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I would put that ahead of our uncrewed test flight.
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It did, however, perform an uncrewed flight test in 2014.
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Our flight with a crew depends on a successful uncrewed flight.
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ET, SpaceX's uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launch pad.
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Currently, the uncrewed version transports supplies to the International Space Station.
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SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule has already completed an uncrewed demonstration mission.
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That inaugural flight will send an uncrewed capsule around the Moon.
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The spacecraft is technically uncrewed, but there are three passengers of sorts.
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Boeing plans to conduct an uncrewed test flight of Starliner on Dec.
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That said, this 'plane' is an uncrewed model weighing just 2.45 kilograms.
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The uncrewed spacecraft will launch early Monday morning, at 12:45 a.m.
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Additional uncrewed test flights will continue through the rest of this year.
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Now, the space agency may require Boeing to repeat Starliner's uncrewed flight.
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The uncrewed test flight is scheduled for late 2018 or early 2019.
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Boeing expects to conduct its uncrewed test flight of Starliner on Dec.
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It's slated to fly an uncrewed demo mission no earlier than April.
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Crew Dragon's uncrewed test flight in May went off without a hitch.
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Boeing's uncrewed test flight of its system is expected to launch Dec.
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Up until now, though, the vast majority of commercial spacecraft have been uncrewed.
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But Artemis 1 is going to be an uncrewed launch around the Moon.
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Boeing's uncrewed Orbital Flight Test is targeted for launch no earlier than April.
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Remarkably, the uncrewed rocket continued on its mission as if nothing had happened.
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Its first uncrewed test flight on the SLS is slated for late 2018.
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That's what these uncrewed test flights of the New Shepard are all about.
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The mission was one of a few uncrewed demonstration tests that NASA requires.
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In the meantime, the Soviets had begun sending uncrewed spaceships around the moon.
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It's slated to fly its first uncrewed demo mission no earlier than April.
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Both were expecting to complete uncrewed test launches in August at the earliest.
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There are also extreme costs involved with launching uncrewed and crewed missions to Mars.
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Their inaugural voyage will be an uncrewed mission around the Moon called Artemis 1.
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Dubai has test-flown an uncrewed two-seater drone designed to transport people autonomously.
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Israel's uncrewed Beresheet lander is flying ever closer to its moon landing on Thursday.
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An uncrewed SpaceX Dragon capsule is on its way to the International Space Station.
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An uncrewed Russian spacecraft meant to resupply the International Space Station has been lost.
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But since Cygnus is uncrewed, scientists could light a bigger fire without endangering astronauts.
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SpaceX's Crew Dragon is scheduled for its first uncrewed test launch on Jan. 17.
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SpaceX successfully completed its uncrewed test flight to the space station earlier in 2019.
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An uncrewed Russian Progress cargo ship blasted off towards the International Space Station on Wednesday.
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And if does take place in 2018, it'll be an uncrewed flight around the Moon.
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Although today's flight will be uncrewed, the rocket will have eight science payloads on board.
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SpaceX has said it plans to launch its first uncrewed mission to Mars in 2018.
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Testing out this system won't happen until spring 2019 now, after the uncrewed test flight.
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In 2017, Tiangong-2 docked with the uncrewed Tianzhou-1 spacecraft on three separate occasions.
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Zhang now plans to use uncrewed flights and better sensors to help bolster that case.
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Boeing hopes to launch its capsule, the Starliner, on an uncrewed test flight in August.
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New Shepard is fully autonomous, and it completed its 12th uncrewed test flight last month.
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The United Arab Emirates will also launch a Mars mission, an uncrewed orbiter called Hope.
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That mission is currently planned to be uncrewed and scheduled to launch in late 2018.
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NASA does not plan on doing any uncrewed test landings with these designs beforehand, though.
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The uncrewed vehicle was supposed to dock with the International Space Station on Saturday morning.
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Typically, the agency does an uncrewed test flight first to determine if a vehicle is safe.
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The spaceplane is meant to take off vertically and fly uncrewed to high altitudes above Earth.
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The SLS, a 77-ton lifter, has been delayed until 2019 for its first uncrewed flight.
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The drone was uncrewed and hovered 200 meters high during the test flight, according to Reuters.
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Why it matters: Boeing initially targeted this spring for its first uncrewed flight of the Starliner.
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What's next: An in-flight, uncrewed abort test will take place after the Demo-1 mission.
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What's next: An in-flight, uncrewed abort test will take place after the demo-1 mission.
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The Crew Dragon spacecraft completed an uncrewed test flight in March that appeared to be successful.
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Musk also plans to use the ships to send an uncrewed mission to Mars by 2022.
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By then, Zond 6 was on its way — uncrewed, but who knew what might be next.
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Commercial Crew program participant SpaceX performed its uncrewed ISS docking mission, called "Demo-1," last March.
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It's possible the company may have to do another uncrewed flight test because of the mishap.
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SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule completed a successful uncrewed test flight to the ISS earlier this year.
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Still on track for 2017 is an uncrewed demo launch, now targeting Q4 with the updated timeline.
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Boeing's vehicle, the CST-13 Starliner, is set to fly uncrewed for the first time this April.
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Theoretically, it wouldn't be a big deal if the ISS is uncrewed for a period of time.
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A similarly designed cargo spacecraft, the Progress, has had over 150 uncrewed missions with just three failures.
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That's a change to the original SLS flight plan, which was for an uncrewed launch in 2018.
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Humans have successfully landed 20 crewed and uncrewed missions on the Moon's surface, with more to come.
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Dragon: SpaceX has been flying uncrewed Dragon capsules to the International Space Station for NASA since 2012.
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The company successfully launched (and landed) the 11th uncrewed test of the launch system on May 2.
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On March 23, 2019, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivered an uncrewed Crew Dragon to the ISS.
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Blue Origin plans to continue uncrewed test flights of New Shepard throughout the rest of the year.
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Boeing is targeting August for an uncrewed flight of the Starliner and a crewed flight for November.
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Although SpaceX's uncrewed demo mission went off without a hitch, it has had problems of its own.
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SpaceX already pulled off an uncrewed test flight of its vehicle, the Crew Dragon, back in March.
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Currently, Russia launches crewed and uncrewed missions to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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For the test, NASA will use a fully functional LAS and an uncrewed 22,000 pound Orion test vehicle.
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What they have to do first is they have to fly the spacecraft uncrewed, with nobody on it.
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That's not exactly clear, given that the university is developing things like uncrewed undersea vehicles with Hanwha Systems.
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But the uncrewed flight test will at least pave the way for that first crewed flight to happen.
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SpaceX is planning to fly an uncrewed Dragon 2 to the ISS by the end of the year.
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During this trip, the SLS will launch an uncrewed capsule called Orion on a path around the Moon.
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That mission — scheduled for 2018 — will take NASA's uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the far side of the Moon.
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The private company launched yet another Falcon 9 rocket to space loaded down with an uncrewed Dragon capsule.
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And the first uncrewed flight of the Starliner has now moved from December 2017 to June of 2018.
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SpaceX has a booming business conducting uncrewed resupply trips to the International Space Station through contracts with NASA.
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The uncrewed test is planned for November; the test flight with crew aboard is set for April 2019.
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In March, SpaceX completed an uncrewed demonstration flight of Crew Dragon to the space station called Demo-1.
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NASA may ask for a re-do of the uncrewed mission before allowing astronauts to fly the Starliner.
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The X-37B, built by Boeing, is an uncrewed vehicle, but resembles the Space Shuttle on a smaller scale.
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In an earnings report released January 29, Boeing included $410 million expense to cover a potential second uncrewed flight.
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ET, carrying an uncrewed Dragon capsule loaded down with supplies and experiments to the International Space Station for NASA.
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Each is tasked with performing uncrewed test flights of their vehicles first, followed by missions with crew months later.
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Now, the uncrewed test flight is slated for November 2018, and SpaceX is targeting the crewed flight for April.
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That's the part of the uncrewed test run that concerns SpaceX CEO Elon Musk the most, the BBC wrote.
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During the uncrewed flight we will evaluate all test objectives except those that require a person in the capsule.
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SpaceX will use its Falcon 9 rocket to launch the uncrewed version of its Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.
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Rama, as the object in the novel is dubbed, turns out to be an uncrewed alien spacecraft, 20173km long.
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ET. That's when the company is supposed to launch an uncrewed cargo spaceship for NASA from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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The mission is an exciting milestone for the industry, which has been working toward uncrewed satellite repair for years.
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SpaceX's Crew Dragon is scheduled to conduct an uncrewed test of its in-flight abort system on Jan. 11.
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It marked the 12th uncrewed test flight for Blue Origin's fully autonomous rocket and spacecraft system, called New Shepard.
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An uncrewed demonstration mission took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Saturday for the International Space Station.
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SpaceX already launched its Crew Dragon once in March, on an uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station.
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Musk has said he wants a spaceship to make its first uncrewed trek to Mars in 22019, carrying cargo.
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NASA has said it might do away with the uncrewed SLS mission, and just go with the crewed one first.
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It expects that over the next decade, there will be an introduction of crewed and uncrewed autonomous ships and fleets.
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A dramatic video showing the explosion of an uncrewed SpaceX rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida was captured on Thursday morning.
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The plan was for NASA to fly the SLS for the first time, uncrewed, in the fall of next year.
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The uncrewed submarine is going to Antarctica to study deep currents, and how climate change is affecting the world's oceans.
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Musk is still gunning for an ambitious 2022 uncrewed mission to the Red Planet and a crewed mission in 2024.
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As SpaceX first announced in April, it intends to start flying uncrewed "Red Dragon" missions to Mars beginning late 2018.
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Blue Origin successfully launched (and landed) the 11th uncrewed test of its suborbital New Shepard launch system Thursday in Texas.
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Boeing plans to do an uncrewed flight test of its CST-100 Starliner later this year or early next year.
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Blue Origin has successfully demonstrated this launch and landing technique with the same uncrewed New Shepard vehicle three times before.
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Even uncrewed space probes would be able to reach their destinations more quickly, opening the solar system to further exploration.
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The uncrewed spacecraft was dropped out of a helicopter flying at an altitude of 12,324 feet over the Mojave Desert.
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Once brought back to shore, the same capsule will be refurbished for another launch, also uncrewed, as soon as June.
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But we still don't know when the uncrewed plane is going to land or even what it's doing up there.
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It's possible that NASA may require Boeing to perform a second uncrewed flight test before people ride inside the Starliner.
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NASA may ask Boeing to re-do that uncrewed mission to the space station before it launches its first astronauts.
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Boeing (BA) launched its capsule, Starliner, into space for the first time earlier this month for an uncrewed demonstration mission.
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NASA wouldn't say if Boeing needs to repeat an uncrewed Starliner mission or proceed to first-ever mission with astronauts.
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Instead, November 2017 will see an uncrewed test flight for the Dragon capsule that was originally scheduled for May 2017.
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The uncrewed and crew flight tests were originally scheduled for this August and later this year, respectively, but following an engine test mishap, Boeing is now targeting the end of this year or the beginning of next year for its uncrewed flight, and it will try to fly its first crew in mid-2019.
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USSVPhoto: Siping ZhengIn an apparent first, Chinese scientists have launched a weather-observing rocket from an uncrewed semi-submersible vehicle (USSV).
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The first phase of ExoMars, an uncrewed Mars mission from the European Space Agency (ESA), successfully launched today from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
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The X-37B is the first uncrewed space plane for the U.S., and is designed for reusability at a reasonable cost.
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On the horizon: Boeing and SpaceX — both NASA partners — are planning uncrewed tests of their spacecrafts in the first half 2019.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the first uncrewed flight tests will take place in early 2019.
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SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to do its first uncrewed flight in November, with the first crews flying in April of next year.
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The uncrewed spacecraft Dawn just finished up its mission orbiting Ceres and helping us totally transform our understanding of the world.
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The next major milestone was supposed to happen in June, with an in-flight, uncrewed test of the Dragon's abort system.
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That uncrewed spacecraft, called Hope, would fly to the red planet in 2020 and make it into orbit there in 20173.
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The first uncrewed test flight, tentatively scheduled for May, has been pushed all the way out to August, Boeing confirmed yesterday.
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In 1003 and 2007 Bigelow Aerospace launched two free-flying, uncrewed stations, Genesis I and II, using repurposed Ukranian nuclear missiles.
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They say considering this alongside its tactical ability and fast reaction times could make it an ideal controller for uncrewed aircraft.
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Uncrewed surface vessels and submersibles might be able to field far more instruments more cheaply than navies have in the past.
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For that test, dubbed Exploration Mission 1, the SLS will carry an uncrewed version of Orion into orbit around the Moon.
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Its Mark 2 parachute helped successfully bring a Crew Dragon capsule back from its first (uncrewed) orbital mission earlier this year.
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An uncrewed test flight of a Boeing spacecraft designed to carry NASA astronauts may have narrowly avoided catastrophic failure in December.
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Boeing's Starliner experienced problems during its first uncrewed test flight in December and was unable to dock with the space station.
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Bridenstine did not say whether or not Boeing would have to do a second uncrewed flight test to demonstrate that maneuver.
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The new ship has undergone years' worth of trials — including parachute deployments, engine firings, and even an uncrewed launch to orbit.
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The Jeff Bezos-backed spaceflight company launched an uncrewed test of its New Shepard rocket system on Sunday at 10:36 a.m.
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Crew Dragon's uncrewed test flight to the space station went smoothly, however, which just leaves SpaceX with analysis and paperwork to complete.
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That's a scary prospect, especially since the Soyuz just experienced a failure during an uncrewed mission to the space station last week.
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Or do they keep the ISS empty and uncrewed—an unprecedented move—and force commercial launches to be put on indefinite pause?
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For now, the first flight of the SLS is supposed to be uncrewed, followed by a crewed mission no earlier than 2021.
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NASA made it clear earlier this year that the SLS's first flight, an uncrewed mission called EM-1, would be pushed back.
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It also codifies Uber's participation in NASA's uncrewed traffic management (UTM) project, which was first introduced in 2015 to regulate drone traffic.
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That meant the platform would have to go through another round of upgrades once the first uncrewed flight of SLS was complete.
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After the issue was corrected, the Soyuz rocket successfully launched in the same configuration in a subsequent uncrewed and then crewed missions.
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Editor's note: This story was updated to include the April date of Boeing's uncrewed flight test of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.
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The company has launched 11 uncrewed test flights of its New Shepard space system designed to bring paying customers to suborbital space.
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Should all go well, NASA plans to send an uncrewed flight of the SLS with the Orion spacecraft some time in 2018.
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That puts SpaceX well ahead of competitor Boeing, whose CST-100 Starliner isn't scheduled for its first uncrewed test date until April.
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Image: BoeingIn March, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch Boeing's first CST-100 Starliner—also uncrewed—to the ISS.
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Hopefully we can expect more shows like this, since Blue Origin will continue doing these uncrewed flight tests over the next year.
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The rocket will launch an uncrewed version of the Orion crew capsule that NASA has been working on for the past decade.
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In April, SpaceX conducted an uncrewed ground test that was a warm-up to an in-flight abort test on a rocket.
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SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell has reportedly said the company hopes to send its first uncrewed payloads to Mars by 2024.
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SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell reportedly said that the company hopes to send its first uncrewed payloads to Mars by 2024.
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And his earlier announcements had suggested that the B.F.R. would be ready for an uncrewed trip to Mars as soon as 2022.
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If liftoff goes well, NASA TV also plans to broadcast key moments of the uncrewed Starliner&aposs flight to and from space.
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India's moon mission: The country launched a rocket carrying an uncrewed lunar lander today, a week after the first attempt was canceled.
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The second is for the crew test and will actually fly after the third, which is being used for the uncrewed test.
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Officials said SLS would be ready to fly the Orion capsule on its uncrewed lunar mission, dubbed EM-1, in December 2017.
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Boeing's uncrewed CST-100 Starliner will not make it to the International Space Station after a serious, post-launch malfunction on Friday.
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Consequently, we're now facing the very real possibility of having an uncrewed International Space Station—something that hasn't happened in nearly two decades.
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ET Monday carrying an uncrewed Dragon capsule filled with thousands of pounds of supplies and experiments toward the International Space Station for NASA.
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Electrical problems left the space station running on about 203% its normal power supply, delaying SpaceX's latest uncrewed resupply mission to the ISS.
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Building a city on Mars in a century sounds a tad ambitious, considering UAE has yet to send an uncrewed spacecraft to Mars.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket disintegrated after launching an uncrewed payload toward the International Space Station in June 2015, destroying the cargo onboard.
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The test, called Ascent Abort-2, involved the launch of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft followed by an abort sequence around a minute later.
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The last time the vehicle flew was in 2014, when it lofted an uncrewed test version of NASA's Orion crew capsule into space.
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Musk also shared an "aspirational" goal to launch the first uncrewed cargo missions in 2022, followed by the first crewed missions in 2024.
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The SLS is scheduled to fly for the first time in 20093, taking an uncrewed version of Orion into orbit around the Moon.
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The capsule parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean hours after leaving the space station, completing its first successful uncrewed trip to and from orbit.
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The Indian Space Research Organization intends to send an uncrewed orbiter, lander and rover to the moon in the first half of 2018.
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Late last year, Boeing had to prematurely end its uncrewed demo mission to the space station after a timer glitch on the spacecraft.
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The uncrewed flight test was meant to test Starliner's performance and safety, including the critical ability to autonomously dock to the space station.
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Starliner will need an additional uncrewed mission after it failed to reach the International Space Station as planned on its most recent flight.
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The mission would prove SLS is safe and reliable by flying an uncrewed Orion crew capsule around the moon and back to Earth.
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ONE MONTH after Iran shot an uncrewed American spy plane out of the sky in the Strait of Hormuz, America has returned the favour.
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Demo-2 will be the second demonstration mission of Crew Dragon, following a Demo-1 uncrewed mission that flew in March of last year.
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Early Saturday morning, an uncrewed SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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An uncrewed test of the Boeing spacecraft is scheduled for April 2019, with a crew flight test scheduled for August 2019, according to NASA.
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After a four-day journey to the ISS aboard an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon capsule, the mice spent between 17 and 37 days in space.
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The explosion was SpaceX's second big failure in 15 months: on June 28th 2015, an uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket exploded halfway to the ISS.
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In December, Boeing plans to launch its first uncrewed Starliner to the ISS for the next step ahead of launching with people on board.
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SpaceX is scheduled to do an uncrewed test flight of the Dragon capsule in April, followed by the first crewed flight test in August.
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The company successfully launched its first (uncrewed) modules, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, in 2006 and 3303, and they're both still in orbit today.
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A software glitch that could have destroyed the capsule was fixed in orbit, during an uncrewed December test flight that had already gone awry.
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The development programs for both companies' capsules have been steadily delayed, with each expecting to complete uncrewed test launches in August at the earliest.
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The company wants to start flying its first uncrewed mission to Mars by 2018, with more missions to follow every two years after that.
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"The resulting schedule that we have will support an uncrewed flight test in late 2018 or early 13," Boeing vice president John Mulholland said.
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Due to delays, Bridenstine has hinted it's possible that NASA could launch an uncrewed 2020 test mission to the moon on a commercial rocket.
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While many uncrewed spacecraft have done an incredible job of revealing our solar neighborhood to us, honestly, none did it better than NASA's Cassini probe.
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A Falcon 9 rocket, carrying an uncrewed Dragon 1 spacecraft stuffed will cargo, took of from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday just before 3 a.m.
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SLS, complete with 4 RS-25 engines, is scheduled to make its first flight in 2018 with an uncrewed Orion along with 13 CubeSats onboard.
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Renaming BFR to Starship SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company hopes to start doing uncrewed launch tests of the new rocket in late 2019.
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But if the vehicle's key systems check out okay, the uncrewed test flight will then be followed by a crewed one scheduled for June 2019.
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A number of companies and nations are now planning to send crewed and uncrewed missions to the vicinity of the moon in the coming decade.
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Boeing has already delayed the first uncrewed flight of its Starliner capsule to the station, moving it from this spring to August at the earliest.
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The uncrewed mission was intending to take a United Arab Emirates Falcon Eye 1 military satellite into orbit from Guiana Space Center in South America.
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Their current model of uncrewed aircraft takes off before it's fitted with a delivery package, as you can see in the GIF below from Australia.
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That's where it will live until it goes on its first uncrewed test flight on top of NASA's next big rocket, the Space Launch System.
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In January, the Japanese space agency, JAXA, attached a 2,300-foot-long spool of aluminum-and-steel cable to an uncrewed space station supply vehicle.
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China launched its first uncrewed space lab, Tiangong-1, in 2011, and plans to assemble and launch a 60-tonne upgrade, Tiangong-3, by 2022.
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In April, SpaceX announced plans to send uncrewed spacecraft to Mars as early as 20183, to test out ways to land on the Red Planet.
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The US military has launched five uncrewed X-37B spaceplanes into orbit over the past decade, and each flight has been longer than its predecessor.
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And the most recent uncrewed flight of the Starliner failed to achieve an orbit that allowed it to reach the International Space Station, as planned.
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A clock error on the Starliner also caused Boeing&aposs first uncrewed launch of the vehicle toward the space station to veer wildly off-course.
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If this uncrewed test goes well, it could pave the way for Boeing to launch its first crewed mission to the station in early 2020.
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"NASA is evaluating the data received during the December 2019 mission to determine if another uncrewed mission is required," Boeing said in its earnings release.
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NASA may ask the company to re-do an uncrewed flight test before allowing astronauts to fly the Starliner, since Boeing's first try was unsuccessful.
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Within six months, SpaceX hopes to attempt to send an uncrewed flight into Earth's orbit, a feat that requires speeds over 16,000 miles per hour.
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SpaceX already completed an uncrewed test flight to the station, but it's not yet clear when the company will fly its first crew to orbit.
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The deep space capsule will fly uncrewed until at least 2022, when the second SLS mission is expected to take four astronauts around the moon.
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Boeing's new spaceship for NASA, called the CST-100 Starliner, completed its first uncrewed space mission, called the Orbital Flight Test, on December 21, 2019.
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This month was to be a major milestone for Crew Dragon, which was scheduled to make an uncrewed test trip to the ISS; Boeing planned to perform orbital tests soon as well, but both have been put off, according to NASA's Commercial Crew blog: The agency now is targeting March 2 for launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon on its uncrewed Demo-1 test flight.
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This is the fifth mission of the X-7183B, which is an uncrewed orbital vehicle that can spend years in space without coming back to Earth.
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It's official: the first uncrewed flight of SpaceX's new passenger capsule, the Crew Dragon, is set to launch on March 2nd out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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The uncrewed ship will remain docked for to Tiangong-2 for two months, where it will conduct "several months of robotic demonstrations," according to Spaceflight Now.
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Both companies are planning for uncrewed test flights early next year, with the first crewed tests to come later in 2019 and possibly continue into 2020.
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If all goes according to plan, the Antares rocket will carry an uncrewed Cygnus cargo ship into orbit to resupply the ISS on behalf of NASA.
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As of this month, SpaceX has been planning to fly the first uncrewed test flight of its vehicle, the Crew Dragon, as early as January 2019.
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A Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during a ground test on April 20, after a history-making uncrewed flight to the International Space Station in March.
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Since January, SpaceX has been scheduled to do the first uncrewed test flight of its Crew Dragon in August, followed by a crewed flight in December.
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Illustration: SpaceXSpaceX is set to send an uncrewed Dragon capsule to the International Space Station this weekend in one of the most anticipated launches of 2019.
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It's a routine mission for Elon Musk's space exploration company: SpaceX has for years conducted uncrewed resupply missions to the space station through contracts with NASA.
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Then sometime in 2021, Musk says, the company may trying landing a full-scale, uncrewed Starship on the moon (perhaps as a bold demonstration to NASA).
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Boeing, which is also developing a craft called the CST-100 Starliner for the Commercial Crew Program, is not slated to begin uncrewed testing for months.
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Johnson-Freese used the example of the US Air Force's top secret X37-B spaceplane, which is a miniature uncrewed shuttle program with an unknown objective.
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The big picture: Musk is set on his goal of launching a 2022 uncrewed mission to the red planet, then the first with humans by 2024.
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Whatever flew uncrewed from America to Britain, with its remote pilot, satellite control and ability to carry multiple precision-guided weapons, it certainly wasn't a drone.
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This freed up another port with a fully working automatic docking system, allowing the uncrewed Soyuz to finally rendezvous with the space station on its own.
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"NASA is evaluating the data received during the December 2019 mission to determine if another uncrewed mission is required," the quarterly results report from Boeing reads.
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SpaceX&aposs Crew Dragon spaceship is launching again this weekend — likely the capsule&aposs final uncrewed flight before it carries its first astronauts later this year.
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However, the company is still working to understand a clock error that caused its first uncrewed launch toward the space station to veer wildly off-course.
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But the first uncrewed test of that rocket will not occur until 2019 or 2020, and the first flight carrying astronauts would follow several years later.
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The purpose of today's uncrewed mission was to test the scenario in which one parachute fails to deploy during the descent of the New Shepard crew capsule.
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On April 20, SpaceX held an abort engine test for a prototype of its Crew Dragon vehicle (which had been flown previously for the uncrewed ISS mission).
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The rocketsonde launched from the uncrewed vehicle allows researchers to gather atmospheric data in conditions that would prohibit the use of a weather balloon, like a typhoon.
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Like SpaceX, Boeing is also expected to fly a crewed and an uncrewed flight of its Starliner ahead of more regular flights for NASA in the future.
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So for now, it seems that NASA will stick with its original strategy for debuting the SLS: doing an uncrewed flight first, followed by a crewed mission.
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Originally, NASA had planned to launch the first SLS mission in November 2018, sending an uncrewed spacecraft called Orion on a three-week trip around the Moon.
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SpaceX and Boeing will also be moving closer to the first uncrewed tests of their spacecraft that will eventually take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
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In March of this year, SpaceX flew an uncrewed version of its capsule, called Crew Dragon, which successfully docked with the ISS and then returned to Earth.
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Currently, NASA is hoping to fly the SLS for the first time in fall of 2018, and the original plan was for that mission to be uncrewed.
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This trip saw the Soyuz launched atop a new version of Russia's Soyuz rocket, which it has used so far only to transfer cargo with uncrewed spacecraft.
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However, NASA has been clear that the agency does not have time to do an uncrewed landing demonstration with the vehicle prior to people boarding the lander.
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Founded by Elon Musk, the company was scheduled for its first uncrewed test of a Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon capsule attached on Jan. 17.
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The plan is for each vehicle to do an uncrewed test flight first, where they will launch empty and dock at the ISS for a few days.
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An uncrewed Russian spacecraft carrying hundreds of pounds of supplies for the crew onboard the International Space Station failed to make it to orbit after launch Thursday.
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Although they can return safely to Earth whenever needed using a capsule attached to the station, NASA wants to avoid leaving the ISS uncrewed for too long.
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It isn't clear how many uncrewed Red Dragon missions SpaceX hopes to fly to Mars, nor is it clear how much these interplanetary test-runs will cost.
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Boeing is aiming to launch Starliner's uncrewed test flight sometime in August, potentially putting the capsule on track to fly astronauts by the end of the year.
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Thankfully, the Arianespace rocket was on an uncrewed mission, unlike the Russian Soyuz mission that failed last year, forcing its two crewmembers to make an emergency landing.
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That adaptor saw some action for the first time this March when SpaceX's new Crew Dragon capsule automatically docked with the port during an uncrewed test flight.
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An uncrewed SpaceX rocket expected to carry an Israeli satellite to space on Saturday exploded on its pad before a test Thursday morning, the company has confirmed.
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That capsule was reportedly due for an uncrewed in-flight abort test which would first require the kind of static fire test that went wrong on Saturday.
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SpaceX successfully sent an uncrewed Crew Dragon to the space station a year ago, and the company was gearing up to conduct the in-flight abort test.
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The capsule has already demonstrated it can fly into orbit and autonomously dock with the International Space Station: It completed an uncrewed demonstration mission in March 2019.
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However, with NASA contractors furloughed, SpaceX's first uncrewed test of its Crew Dragon capsule has been pushed back, as indicated in a recent tweet from CEO Elon Musk.
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Both companies must complete a successful, uncrewed test flight to dock with the ISS first, with SpaceX's scheduled for no earlier than February and Boeing's scheduled for March.
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The Jeff Bezos-founded spaceflight company Blue Origin successfully completed an uncrewed test on Sunday of a capsule and rocket that have flown to space three times previously.
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To prepare the New Shepard for carrying people, Blue Origin has been conducting uncrewed test flights of the vehicle out of the company's test facility in West Texas.
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Musk's larger goal, which he has described as "aspirational," is to launch an uncrewed cargo mission to the red planet in 2022, followed by human missions in 2024.
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Image: NASAThe uncrewed Dragon launched from the Kennedy Space Center on March 2 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, docking with the International Space Station 27 hours later.
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Apollo 4, which launched on November 9, 1967, was the first uncrewed test flight of NASA's Saturn V rocket, which was developed to bring astronauts to the moon.
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Mr. Musk, fresh from a successful uncrewed launch this month, hopes this year to end Baikonur's status as the exclusive provider of human travel to the space station.
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The first time we'll hopefully get to see it in action is 2018, when NASA plans to send the SLS with the Orian spacecraft on an uncrewed flight.
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Boeing needed this test to go well in order to perform an even bigger flight in the months ahead: Starliner's first uncrewed trip to the International Space Station.
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SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell claimed that Starship could start doing uncrewed missions to the Moon as early as 2022, but that seems to be a wildly ambitious estimate.
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The uncrewed test flight, which came after years of delays and setbacks, was intended to be the final major test before it was finally ready to fly humans.
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The company is also overseeing the first-ever uncrewed demonstration mission of its Crew Dragon capsule, which is designed to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
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Whatever the case, and perhaps even at a major cost to Boeing, Chilton said the company would do whatever it takes to fly astronauts — including another uncrewed test.
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It's also unknown what NASA would do if SpaceX launches its first uncrewed missions to Mars with BFR in 2022, followed by the first crewed missions in 2024.
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Crew Dragon had a great start to 2019, and it executed an uncrewed demo flight in March during which it docked with the space station and returned safely home.
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The Atlantic wrote Musk said there will be multiple tests of the BFR before it goes into operation:Musk said SpaceX would conduct several uncrewed test launches of the BFR.
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When most people hear the word "drone" they either think of uncrewed military aircraft or those multi-rotor mini-copters that could one day deliver packages to your doorstep.
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NASA's own crewed deep space vehicle, the Space Launch System, has cost billions to develop, and its first (uncrewed) launch to the moon will happen no earlier than 2020.
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These uncrewed tests will be accompanied by "abort tests" — a key demonstration of the ability of the crew to escape from the spacecraft in the event of an emergency.
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They demonstrated not only that they could launch and sustain hardware in space, but also dock crewed and uncrewed vehicles to them — vital lessons for any human spaceflight program.
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But it turns out, a drone's spying abilities can be useful: an uncrewed drone discovered a super-rare plant on a steep cliff on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi.
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The uncrewed plane, which looks like a small space shuttle, conducted in-orbit experiments that could then be brought back to Earth for examination, according to the Air Force.
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An uncrewed Orion capsule is slated to fly by the end of 2020 on a trip around the Moon, followed by a crewed mission around the Moon in 2022.
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The BEAM made it to the station aboard SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon capsule on April 10 and was installed on the outside of the orbiting laboratory about six days later.
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The uncrewed Crew Dragon capsule from SpaceX successfully docked with the International Space Station Sunday morning, following a milestone launch into space for testing commercial space travel, AP reports.
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The first flight, called EM-21, will be uncrewed, and it will send the smallest planned version of the rocket on a three-week long trip around the Moon.
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As for Boeing, the company is targeting March 2019 for an uncrewed test flight of its vehicle, the CST-100 Starliner, and a crewed test flight in August 2019.
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Boeing now expects the vehicle to do its uncrewed test flight either later this year or in early 2019, according to a press call with reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
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On January 213, SpaceX, in cooperation with NASA's commercial crew program, is set to use a Falcon 9 rocket to launch an uncrewed Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.
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A similar problem plagued the Space Shuttle – every launch was far more expensive than the uncrewed rockets available, with estimates of per-flight costs at up to $1.2 billion.
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The uncrewed MESSENGER orbited Mercury at an extremely low-altitude for part of its mission, allowing it to capture details of the planet's surface from closer than ever before.
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Additionally, the investigation into the uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket that exploded on a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, closed in January, and SpaceX resumed launching rockets the same month.
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SpaceX — which has already done its uncrewed test flight to the station — is expected to prove out the Crew Dragon's abort system during an in-flight test in January.
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SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule completed its uncrewed test flight earlier this year, but still must pass another test of the capsule's emergency abort system before it's ready to fly.
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However, no one could say whether or not the company&aposs next mission would be a redo of the uncrewed test flight or the first with astronauts riding inside.
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If a 3D printed part breaks, Lores told me, HP can print out a replacement and send it to the ISS on the next uncrewed SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.
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According to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, it's still too early to tell if the company will be expected to launch another uncrewed test flight ahead of a crewed launch.
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The company is planning to test out its pad escape system in White Sands, New Mexico in January 2018, followed by the first uncrewed flight in June of that year.
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Musk recently claimed that the Starship / Super Heavy system could perform its first uncrewed landing on the Moon within the next two years, followed by a crewed landing in four.
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For the last few years, the strategy has been to roll out the giant rocket by doing an uncrewed mission first, followed by a crewed one a few years later.
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But the origin of military drones is usually dated to the development of uncrewed, remote-controlled aircraft for use as targets by anti-aircraft gunners after the first world war.
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If all goes well, Musk believes that this could be followed by an initial uncrewed flight to Mars in 2022 with a crewed flight taking place as early as 2024.
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Boeing's first uncrewed test flight of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station is delayed until at least August, according to a NASA statement released on Wednesday.
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While SpaceX has made several successful (and uncrewed) trips to the ISS, that's not necessarily a sign that a mission around the moon—crewed or not—will go over well.
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Both SpaceX and Boeing are slated to do an uncrewed test flight and a crewed test flight before their capsules can be certified to do routine missions to the ISS.
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The Crew Dragon used in the test was the same one used for the Demo-1 mission, which saw an uncrewed capsule visit the International Space Station back in March.
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Now the company is getting closer to that reality with an uncrewed launch to the red planet expected in 2018, with a crewed mission to follow as soon as 2024.
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After that, an uncrewed mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, mandated by Congress, is set for the mid-2020s, but not much else has been confirmed for the SLS and Orion.
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NASA's Orion deep-space ship and heavy-lift Space Launch System are slated for an uncrewed flight in early 2019 and a crewed flight around the moon two years later.
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The commercial crew program is modeled after NASA's commercial resupply program, which tapped SpaceX and Orbital ATK to make uncrewed resupply trips to the space station on behalf of NASA.
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According to the JAXA, the Int-Ball was initially delivered to "Kibo," the Japanese Experiment Module on the International Space Station, on June 4, 2017, aboard SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon capsule.
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The whole purpose behind these uncrewed test flights is to ensure the vehicle will be safe enough to carry humans up in outer space, and return them to the ground.
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Each time, a booster (powered by Blue Origin's own hydrogen-fueled BE-3 rocket engine) sent an uncrewed space capsule just beyond the boundary of space, and landed it safely.
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Ryan Hartman, an uncrewed aerial systems expert who took over the role of CEO in February 2019, has made as his primary focus "operationalizing" the company's technologies into a business.
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The uncrewed flight was to have been the last major milestone before NASA agreed to putting its astronauts aboard the craft, but now another test flight may be needed. 8.
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NASA could require Boeing to fly another uncrewed test, and the company took a $410 million charge against its earnings last quarter in case it has to pay for that.
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The company already sent an uncrewed Crew Dragon to the ISS in March, showing that the capsule could successfully dock to the station and then return to Earth via parachutes.
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In the meantime, NASA is still trying to figure out if it wants Boeing to repeat the uncrewed test flight of Starliner since the vehicle never reached the space station.
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Starliner conducted an uncrewed test flight in December that was designed to show that the vehicle can safely dock with the International Space Station — but it didn't go as planned.
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The trip back to Earth will be a final key test for Crew Dragon, which launched an uncrewed demonstration mission on Saturday and linked up with the ISS on Sunday.
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The U.S. National Guard has asked Congress to deploy Reaper drones at the U.S.-Mexico border, an uncrewed aerial vehicle that's more sophisticated (and arguably sounds more terrifying) than the Predator.
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There, in the path of the unprecedented storm, SpaceX managed to launch a secret uncrewed spacecraft for the Air Force and bring its Falcon 9 back home for a ground landing.
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During the mission, the uncrewed capsule docked with the space station for less than a week and then successfully landed in the Atlantic Ocean afterward using a series of four parachutes.
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The reason that the orbit of the ISS is decaying is because NASA and Russia decided to send an uncrewed Soyuz capsule to the station — to PUSH IT INTO DEEP SPACE.
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During the last Hubble servicing mission, astronauts installed a mechanism on the spacecraft that could allow future vehicles — crewed or uncrewed — to meet up with the telescope and dock with it.
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Why it matters: This uncrewed test marked an important step toward NASA's goal of landing astronauts back on the surface of the Moon as part of its Artemis program by 2024.
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Now, it looks like the company will be ready to start flying tourists in the next few months, and New Glenn is expected to begin flying uncrewed orbital missions in 2021.
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Before the vehicles are considered operational, NASA wants them to conduct both uncrewed and crewed flight tests of the capsules to see if they're ready for regular trips to the station.
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The uncrewed test flight is just one of many that Blue Origin plans to do with the New Shepard before the vehicle starts carrying paying customers to space sometime in 2018.
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The private rocket company Blue Origin has successfully launched and landed its suborbital rocket in an uncrewed test for the third time, according to tweets from the company's founder Jeff Bezos.
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"As a result, NASA is managing a multibillion dollar program without confidence in its schedule information as it approaches several big events, including uncrewed and crewed flight tests," the GAO said.
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NASA's other Commercial Crew provider, SpaceX, performed its own uncrewed flight test in March 2019, demonstrating that its capsule, the Crew Dragon, could dock autonomously and then return to Earth safely.
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Although Boeing has set aside the funds for a second uncrewed flight, NASA spokesperson Joshua Finch said the agency has not yet decided whether it will require Boeing repeats the test.
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The company powered ahead with its uncrewed demonstration mission in December, which could have put Starliner in a position to launch astronauts in early 22010 if everything went according to plan.
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Both companies are on track to test uncrewed variations in August, according to the most recent NASA announcements, with crewed tests no earlier than November for Boeing and December for SpaceX.
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SpaceX plans to send one uncrewed Dragon 2 capsule to the ISS in the fourth quarter of 2017, followed by the crewed Dragon 2 flight to the ISS in Spring of 2018.
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But without a budget increase, it seems likely that NASA will stick with its original plan: an uncrewed flight of SLS in 2018, followed by a crewed mission a few years later.
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Photo: Joel Kowsky (Getty Images)A day after its launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX's uncrewed Crew Dragon spacecraft has successfully docked with the International Space Station, CNN reported on Sunday.
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Image: Blue OriginJeff Bezos's space firm Blue Origin is also expected to conduct both crewed and uncrewed missions in 2019 with its New Shepard suborbital vehicle, with dates still to be determined.
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SpaceX is riding high this week after announcing that the company plans to send its first uncrewed mission to Mars by 2018 using its Dragon 2 capsule and the Falcon Heavy rocket.
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But I have to say, photos like this one, of an uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft approaching the International Space Station on April 22, make me rethink my hard-line stance against space travel.
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The first version of the SLS will debut with a smaller upper stage, or top portion of the vehicle; that's going to be used for the first uncrewed test flight in 2018.
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SpaceX is also gearing up to launch astronauts to the International Space Station through a contract with NASA, building on years of conducting uncrewed resupply missions to station for the space agency.
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The startup, which was founded in 2016 by experienced professionals with track records of working in UAS (uncrewed aerial systems) has just completed its first flights of the Chaparral prototype test craft.
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Friday that it's too soon to say whether NASA will require Boeing to conduct another uncrewed test flight before the vehicle is deemed ready to fly astronauts.
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The uncrewed test launch took off Saturday around 3 am ET. Musk surprised journalists by showing up to a 5 am press conference where he fielded questions alongside NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.
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The spacecraft launched an uncrewed test flight on Friday but had to abort its mission to dock with the International Space Station when it failed to put itself on the right trajectory.
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"Their first uncrewed flight test, right now, is scheduled for January, followed by, not many months later, maybe in the springtime, their first crewed flight test to the space station," Jurczyk said.
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It marked the 11th uncrewed test of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, and it could be one of the last before the company starts selling tickets and sending its first customers to space.
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"I Love the USA" was commissioned by NASA and Apple to hype up the Juno Mission, an uncrewed spacecraft set to reach Jupiter's orbit on July 4 that could use some good press.
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NASA is already working with a host of commercial partners on an authorized vendor list for robotic, uncrewed lunar lander mission to deliver experiments and supplies to the lunar surface starting in 2021.
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In December, 13 NASA completed Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), launching an uncrewed Orion atop a Delta IV-Heavy rocket to an altitude of 3,600 miles for two orbits around the planet.
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The next launch of the Soyuz rocket in the same configuration is tentatively scheduled for November 16th when it is set to carry an uncrewed Progress supply ship to the International Space Station.
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The two companies are scheduled to conduct uncrewed test flights of their spacecraft starting early next year, during which their vehicles will launch and dock with the space station without people on board.
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The first team to successfully land its uncrewed spacecraft, move a 500 meters (1,640 feet), and beam high-definition photos and video footage back to Earth will nab the $20 million grand prize.
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SpaceX says the first flight to include the tanks will be its uncrewed demonstration flight for Commercial Crew, when the company will send up an empty crew capsule to the International Space Station.
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SpaceX confirmed today that its Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during a ground test of the vehicle on April 20, after its history-making uncrewed flight to the International Space Station in March.
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At the moment, the company is planning to launch two uncrewed tests of Blue Moon, one in 2023 and one in 2024 with a human launch and landing at the end of 2024.
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Before the drone ship landing, the Falcon 9 rocket launched an uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station stocked with tons of supplies and experiments for the astronauts and cosmonauts onboard.
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"This is gonna sound pretty crazy, but ... with an uncrewed vehicle, I believe we could land on the moon in two years," Musk told Time Editor at Large Jeffrey Kluger on July 12.
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On a typical run, the uncrewed, submarinelike device follows a track six miles long, skimming just 260 feet above the seafloor while sending out low-frequency sonar waves to its left and right.
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New York (CNN Business)Boeing's Starliner spacecraft failed to put itself on the correct course during an uncrewed test flight on Friday and will not reach the International Space Station during this mission.
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Boeing is also getting closer to its own commercial crew launch, and in fact completed an entire rehearsal of how the mission will go on launch day when it does its uncrewed launch.
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That consideration was necessary, he said, because SLS was facing new hangups that threatened to upend plans to launch its Orion spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight around the Moon in mid-2020.
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Boeing's CST-100 Starliner — a capsule designed to one day bring humans to orbit — is back on Earth after the uncrewed spacecraft failed in its bid to dock with the International Space Station.
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So here's the thing, this week SpaceX will launch and then attempt to bring one of its Falcon 9 rockets back to land after launching an uncrewed Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.
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NASA plans to certify the company's vehicles only after they've done an uncrewed test flight and a crewed test flight, meaning the first astronauts likely won't fly until late next year at the earliest.
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After the latter spacecraft had a less than optimal uncrewed flight when it failed to dock with the International Space Station, a study revealed that Boeing had failed to adequately test the vehicle's software.
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The first is an uncrewed test of the abort system, to make sure it can whisk the capsule with the astronauts to safety in case of a rocket failure on the way to orbit.
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Its Starliner capsule launched an uncrewed demonstration mission in December, which could have put Starliner in a position to launch astronauts in the first couple months of 2020 — if everything went according to plan.
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Boeing plans to work with NASA to figure out why the company's newest passenger spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, suffered a mishap during its first uncrewed launch to space at the end of December.
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The company's expandable modules could also orbit as a standalone station around the Earth similar to the company's first uncrewed modules, Genesis 1 and Genesis2, launched in 2006 and 2007 and still in orbit today.
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If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 will launch an uncrewed Dragon cargo ship loaded down with astronaut supplies and experiments on its way to the International Space Station at 10:01 a.m.
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The first Crew Dragon flights will go to the International Space Station – much like the uncrewed test mission SpaceX performed with the capsule in March – and will be an important step toward its grander ambitions.
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I quote the US Air Force Flight Plan from 2009 on an [uncrewed] aircraft system, which explicitly raises these questions of [autonomous weapon systems], and it was the first civil defense doc to do so.
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Orion's first trip to space is planned for 2020/2021, and it's to be an uncrewed test flight in which the module will spend 10 days in orbit around the moon before returning to Earth.
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A SpaceX Falcon 83 rocket with a demo Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off from pad 39A on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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The company has carried out an abort test of its Crew Dragon capsule, and plans to make an uncrewed flight in the first half of 2017, followed by a crewed test flight later that year.
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Vyommitra is bilingual, and its semi-anthropomorphic nature will mean it can provide valuable data from this first uncrewed flight about how Gaganyaan would perform were a person actually strapped in and at the controls.
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SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster on a launch pad in Florida after sending an uncrewed cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station for a NASA resupply mission.
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NASA and Boeing are sharing more details about the issues that were encountered during the Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew spacecraft uncrewed demo mission in December, and their progress on investigating the causes and implementing fixes.
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The launch today included use of a Falcon 9 first stage that flew a mission only a few months ago, when it carried SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule to orbit during an uncrewed demonstration mission in March.
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The tests still proved that they're on the right track with their approach to autonomous flight, with a system that can effectively deal with one of the biggest challenges when it comes to uncrewed flight: Uncertainty.
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But when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded just down the road last September, destroying a chunk of Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40, plans to re-open Kennedy for spaceflights both crewed and uncrewed were accelerated.
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SpaceX — the golden child of the commercial space industry — is working toward launching a private, uncrewed mission to Mars by 2018, with human missions to follow as soon as 2024, if all goes according to plan.
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On Friday, NASA said that if uncrewed test flights go smoothly, the astronauts will fly before then, on roughly two-week test flights and later on missions of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon.
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Boeing and NASA are investigating what went wrong and NASA will decide whether it will allow astronauts on the next Starliner flight, or if it will require Boeing to first repeat the uncrewed orbital test flight.
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To save the uncrewed ship from total failure, Boeing skipped its docking with the space station — the main objective of its mission — and used the remaining propellant to stabilize the capsule's orbit and get it home.
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SEATTLE, March 20 (Reuters) - Boeing Co has delayed by three months its first uncrewed flight to the International Space Station under NASA's human spaceflight program, and pushed its crewed flight until November, industry sources said on Wednesday.
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Instead of its usual private satellites or cargo for NASA, SpaceX launched a secret, uncrewed space plane called the X-37B to orbit for the Air Force, marking the spaceflight company's first launch for the Air Force.
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Ultimately, JAXA's goal is to host a series of uncrewed and human missions under a broader Lunar Exploration Program, with the ultimate aim of establishing a presence for Japanese astronauts in a combined international lunar outpost program.
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On Friday, SpaceX will attempt to launch an uncrewed Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, the first cargo run to the space laboratory since the company's Falcon 9 rocket disintegrated after launch above Florida in June.
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SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co has delayed by at least three months its first uncrewed flight to the International Space Station under NASA's human spaceflight program, and pushed its crewed flight until November, industry sources said on Wednesday.
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Things got more complicated for Muilenburg in the last few days as Boeing's Starliner spacecraft — which is designed to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station — suffered a major setback during an uncrewed test launch last week.
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Monday's launch will mark the ninth flight of the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station under a contract with NASA that could see as many as 20 of these kinds of missions to the orbiting laboratory.
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The main goal of the space agency's first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — currently under construction and expected to launch in 2018 — is to send an uncrewed Orion capsule to an orbit past the moon.
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SpaceX has notched dozens of successful uncrewed launches, but the giant rocket the company is building for deep-space missions, called Starship, is still in the very early stages of development and is expected to be hugely expensive.
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"Notwithstanding the recent incident, there is a large body of work yet to be completed between [the uncrewed flight test] and a crewed flight," Sandy Magnus, a former NASA astronaut and member of ASAP, said at the meeting.
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"Building on an existing no-funds-exchanged collaboration with SpaceX, NASA will provide technical support for the firm's plan to attempt to land an uncrewed Dragon 2 spacecraft on Mars," a NASA spokesperson said in the Wednesday statement.
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In order to win, they need to launch an uncrewed spacecraft to the lunar surface before the end of the year, land, move 500 meters, and beam high-definition videos and photos back to Earth before anyone else.
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Aside from these tests though, there's not much information about some alleged 'other' secret experiments that might be happening on the uncrewed space vehicle, which is now hundreds of days past OTV-212.7's initial 20163 day length.
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NASA already has an uncrewed mission to circumnavigate the moon on the books for 2018 or 2019, so it's possible that the agency will want to cooperate with SpaceX on some kind of moon venture in the future.
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Both SpaceX and Boeing have a few more major hurdles to climb before they're ready to launch NASA astronauts, including a high altitude abort test for SpaceX and an uncrewed demo mission to the space station for Boeing.
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The past 22019 months have not been good for Boeing for all sorts of reasons—capped off in December by the failure of the company's Starliner commercial crew vehicle to achieve the right orbit in its uncrewed debut.
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To save the uncrewed ship from total failure, Boeing skipped its docking with the ISS — the main objective of its mission, called the Orbital Flight Test — and used the remaining propellant to stabilize its orbit and return home.
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In the wee hours of Monday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster made a spectacular landing on a pad in Florida after launching an uncrewed Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on a cargo run for NASA.
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Stofan, who recently left her position as the space agency's chief scientist, dimly recollects traveling from Ohio to Cape Canaveral to watch the fifth flight of the uncrewed Atlas-Centaur launch system, a project of her NASA engineer father's.
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Overall, only 17 percent said they would be likely to take an uncrewed flight, but that percentage rose to 183 percent when reducing the sample size to those aged 18–24, and 31 percent with those aged 25–34.
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Plus, Microsoft's work in keeping uncrewed, low-power aircraft up and flying could have big impact on any plans to deliver internet to underserved areas from on high, monitor ground conditions and weather patterns in real-time, and more.
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This isn't Orion's first trip to space, however – that happened back in 2014 with Exploration Flight Test 1, another uncrewed mission in which Orion spent just four-hours in space, orbiting the Earth twice and then returning to ground.
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SpaceX has secured a contract to launch the uncrewed X-37B spaceplane, a secret military spacecraft created by the U.S. Air Force that's kind of like a compact space shuttle, but whose functional purpose is ultimately kept under wraps.
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In a few months, when an uncrewed, private cargo craft leaves the International Space Station, mission controllers will start a fire within a module housed in its belly, for an experiment that will hopefully make future space missions safer.
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Crew Dragon is the first commercially operated spacecraft designed to carry astronauts, and the uncrewed demonstration mission to the International Space Station is a test to make sure everything works before humans are rocketed into space in the capsule.
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The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to be used in this mission was flown once before – and only a few months ago in March, when it was used in an uncrewed demonstration mission for SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.
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While SpaceX has seen some enormous success, and its plan to send uncrewed landers to Mars in the next few years seems very doable, Musk's ambition to send crewed missions to Mars in the next 10 years is a bit ambitious.
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The company (which separated from car brands of the same name) has been working on autonomous shipping technology since the early 2010s, and it said last year that it wants to launch its first uncrewed ocean-going vessels by 2025.
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SpaceX successfully launched its latest uncrewed cargo mission to the International Space Station on Saturday, and if you haven't seen the video of its Falcon 9 first-stage rocket booster coming in for a landing yet, you need to now.
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SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk in 2002, beat Boeing to the launch pad by sending Crew Dragon on an uncrewed test flight in March, during which the capsule docked with the ISS for a few days before returning home.
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One example of potential trouble involved the rocket used to launch them past Earth's atmosphere, the Saturn V. During Apollo 6, the final uncrewed mission, the rocket experienced several failures, including violent, destructive vibrations that sent pieces of the rocket flying.
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Spectator's view of NASA's SLS booster test / Screenshot of NASA live feed Spectator's view of NASA's SLS booster test / Screenshot of NASA live feed Today's cold motor fire was the last full-scale test before the first uncrewed flight of SLS.
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Read more: How SpaceX's new Starship launch system compares to NASA's towering moon rocketsIf Musk has his way, though, SpaceX may one-up its competition — and NASA itself — by setting down an uncrewed Starship on the lunar surface in 2021.
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First, however, SpaceX hopes to fly an uncrewed Starship prototype into orbit sometime in 2020, then launch its first full-scale commercial vehicle — a two-stage vehicle with a Starship rocket ship and "Super Heavy" booster — in 2021, according to Space.com.
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If they believe they have found debris or the hull of the sunken ship, they then return to the exact spot and send an uncrewed remotely operated vehicle outfitted with manipulator arms and high-resolution cameras to examine the object.
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That is something a satellite can't do — or an airplane, drone, or other high-flying technology, for that matter — and leaves a sizable gap for World View to exploit, says Ryan Hartman, the company's CEO and an uncrewed aerial systems expert.
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"Russian cosmonauts issued a command to abort the automated approach of an uncrewed Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station after the craft was unable to lock onto its target at the station's space-facing Poisk module," NASA confirmed.
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Ars Technica recently reported that NASA was also concerned about thruster performance during the mission, but both parties have so far said it's too early to say whether another uncrewed flight will be required prior to putting crew on board Starliner.
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The Starliner encountered two potentially serious software issues during an uncrewed demonstration mission that took place in December, and now NASA and the company are determining corrective action, including safety reviews of Boeing and its software development and testing processes.
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The uncrewed Dragon 1 capsule will carry about 5,500 pounds of luggage, including hardware that will map carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere, a piece of equipment that could help communicate with deep-space exploration probes, and a host of science experiments.
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Two of its four crew will stay on the station while the others descend to the surface in a special lunar shuttle, do their stuff, then return to Gateway and thence to Earth, leaving the station uncrewed until the next mission arrives.
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"Following a full day of briefings and discussion, NASA and SpaceX are proceeding with plans to conduct the first uncrewed test flight of the Crew Dragon on a mission to the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement announcing its decision.
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Alphabet-owned Loon, the company that had been focused on delivering internet communications to remote areas via stratospheric balloons, has completed development work on a new payload for partner HAPSMobile, a subsidiary of SoftBank that's building high-altitude solar-powered uncrewed aircraft.
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The SLS's first test launch is expected in 2018, when it sends an uncrewed Orion capsule to beyond the moon for a three week mission designed to prove some of the technologies needed to send humans farther into space than ever before.
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The spacecraft is built to fly like a jet — at first The uncrewed spacecraft is built to fly like a jet until it gets to an altitude of about 92,000 feet at five times the speed of sound (3,800 miles per hour).
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Its first test flight with humans aboard has already been delayed once, and the schedule for the SLS's tests are shaky — there is no definitive launch schedule for the rocket beyond its first uncrewed test flight, which is slated for September 30th, 2018.
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The company is incredibly successful at what it is doing — namely sending uncrewed spacecraft to orbit for NASA and other companies — but it needs to do a lot more before it sends actual people to a planet humans have never been to before.
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"Both Boeing and SpaceX proposed a mission to do an uncrewed test flight that demonstrated a docking, so I would not say that's a requirement," Steve Stich, the deputy manager of NASA's Commercial Crew program, said during a press conference after the launch.
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So far this year, SpaceX has succeeded in launching an uncrewed version of its Crew Dragon 2 spacecraft to the ISS during a mission in March, and had planned to run the first crewed test mission this July, with a mission duration of two weeks.
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Geekwire added that Mulholland said the team has already identified the issues (previously reported to be weak springs in the valve system), and that the uncrewed test flight has been moved to the earliest position because it does not involve the launch abort system.
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The upgrade includes five major changes to the rocket's design, and the GAO report claims that there may not be enough time for these changes to be implemented and reviewed by NASA before SpaceX's first uncrewed flight test of the Crew Dragon in late 2017.
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NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is recommending that Boeing's software testing processes undergo a review, following the discovery of another problem with the on-board system that was in operation during the CST-100 Starliner uncrewed Space Station docking test launch in December.
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Even if the fleets of colonists never materialise, the smaller missions—such as the uncrewed landing planned for 2018—will be valuable in their own right, and will prove that interplanetary space flight is now within the means of an (admittedly unusual) private individual.
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An April 21th report from the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College said the Defense Department's proposed 2180 budget for uncrewed systems and technologies includes a 250 percent increase over 2018 funding, which would allow it to reach $9.39 billion.
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"I think there is going to be less time between the uncrewed vehicle for Boeing and the crewed vehicle for Boeing, and longer time between SpaceX [capsule test flights] – which means, whoever gets to fly that first crew, we don't know right now," Bridenstine said.
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The plan is to use this advanced electric propulsion on the robotic portion of NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission; that involves sending an uncrewed spacecraft to an asteroid, capturing a boulder off of the space rock, and then transporting the piece into orbit around the Moon.
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Moon Express — one of the teams competing to win the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize — says that it has now raised enough money to build, test and launch its uncrewed MX-1E spacecraft to the lunar surface before the end of this year.
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Case in point is the Airlander 210, a prototype airship built by UK-based Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) that's 302-feet long, can carry ten metric tons of cargo, and is capable of staying aloft, uncrewed, for up to three weeks at a time.
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A SpaceX Falcon 393 was set to launch an uncrewed Dragon capsule loaded with about 5,500 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station under a contract with NASA, but with just 13 seconds left in the countdown, the company decided to abort the launch.
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Musk said in July he hoped to launch an uncrewed Starship to the moon in 2021, possibly as a way to woo NASA to use the system in its Artemis program — the space agency's plan to return humans to the lunar surface in 2024.
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Falcon Heavy should fly for the first time before the end of this year, and the crewed Dragon spacecraft will make an uncrewed mission to the International Space Station before the end of the year, with a crewed mission to follow about six months later.
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That launch will be the uncrewed version of the first-ever commercial crew launch for Boeing's Starliner crew capsule, and if all goes well, that will mean we're closer than ever for U.S. astronauts launching once again from U.S. soil aboard an American launch vehicle.
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This is actually the second brand new docking adapter with this automated docking capability to be delivered to the International Space Station — the first, IDA-2, was installed in 2016 and was actually already used by SpaceX during its list uncrewed Dragon crew capsule test flight.
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Orion won't be carrying anyone for its first Moon mission – instead, as part of Artemis 1, it'll fly uncrewed propelled by the new Space Launch System, spend a total of three weeks in space including six days orbiting the Moon, and then return back to Earth.
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The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in the United States said last year that the U.S. Air Force should explore pairing crewed and uncrewed aircraft to expand its fleet and complement a limited number of "exquisite, expensive, but highly potent fifth-generation aircraft" like the F-35.
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If the activities and timeline of Wednesday's attempt are any indication, however, the company will likely try again to fly Starhopper after trying to launch a different rocket for NASA: one with an uncrewed spaceship that's sending about 5,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station.
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Boeing reported its fourth-quarter results this morning, and they included a $410 million charge specifically earmarked to cover the cost of an additional Commercial Crew mission, should NASA determine that another uncrewed launch is required after the first one didn't go as planned last December.
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And she can prove it by comparing the first rocket, which is nearing completion and will fly the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission around the moon, with the second, which is being built at the NASA facility in New Orleans and will bring humans back to the moon.
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China's upcoming projects in space include a mission to collect samples from the moon via an uncrewed craft by the end of this year, and to also launch an exploratory mission to the far side of the moon next year, with the similar aim of returning samples for study.
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Where it stands: SpaceX — the other company under contract with NASA for missions to the Space Station — launched its first successful uncrewed test flight of its Crew Dragon to the Space Station on March 2, marking a win for the Elon Musk-founded company and NASA's multibillion-dollar investment.
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Not to be outdone by his billionaire competitor, this week, it was revealed that Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos is planning to launch a cargo spacecraft to shuttle goods—and eventually, humans—to and from the Moon, with uncrewed missions beginning as early as July 2020.
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The first Crew Dragon is set to take off in November as part of an uncrewed flight test, and if all goes according to plan, a crew of two astronauts—Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—will launch to the ISS for a two-week stay in April 2019.
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The rehearsal paves the way for the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT) that NASA, ULA and Boeing are targeting for December 20 (which just changed today from December 19), which will be exactly what the first crewed mission aboard the Starliner will be, but without the crew on board.
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Mark your calendar, folks—the uncrewed test flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, called Demo-1, has been scheduled for January 7, 2019 at 11:57 pm ET. A Falcon 9 rocket will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and carry the capsule to the International Space Station.
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Photo: Terry Renna (AP)Aerospace company SpaceX and NASA launched the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft in the early hours of Saturday morning from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking a significant step forward in NASA again being able to send astronauts to space without the assistance of its international partners.
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An uncrewed test flight of Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft designed to carry NASA astronauts, could have ended in disaster in December because of lapses that allowed software errors to slip through undetected and unfixed before the spacecraft launched, according to a review by NASA and Boeing that was announced on Friday.
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The uncrewed flight didn't go exactly as planned, however — that docking with the ISS never happened because of an error with the mission timer on board the spacecraft, which caused the Starliner to burn too much fuel during an early orbital maneuver and subsequently forced Boeing and NASA to change the mission parameters.
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The uncrewed Tiangong-2 vehicle descended about 59 miles (95 kilometers) two weeks ago, then popped back up to its previous 242-mile-high (390 km) orbit on June 22, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who keeps tabs on many of the more interesting objects circling Earth.
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The Boeing-built uncrewed spaceplane most recently completed a two-year orbital mission before returning to Earth in May, and it's going back up hopefully this morning, though weather conditions are looking only 50 percent favorable ahead of launch, with SpaceX hoping to get the launch off the ground ahead of hurricane Irma's arrival.
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NASA panel recommends Boeing software process reviews after revealing second Starliner issue NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is recommending that Boeing's software testing processes undergo a review, following the discovery of another problem with the on-board system that was in operation during the CST-100 Starliner uncrewed Space Station docking test launch in December. 7.
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In the meantime SpaceX is planning to launch a smaller, uncrewed spacecraft—one of its existing Dragons, as depicted above—to Mars in 2018, and at the congress Mr Musk promised that he would follow up with a steady stream of further missions every two years, when the positions of Earth and Mars make the latter most reachable.
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The rocket, which won't have a crew on board, will take off from a test site in rural Texas on Thursday around 9:13 am ET. It will be the 11th uncrewed test of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, and it could be one of the last before the company starts selling tickets and sending its first customers to space.
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Accordingly, the panel would like to see a review of Boeing's systems engineering, software integration and verification testing, and that doing so should precede a decision about whether or not to go ahead with either another uncrewed launch, or move ahead to the crewed test flight, which would've been the next step had everything gone to plan on the December launch.
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Of 87 scientists, engineers, managers and others, 31 agreed to be interviewed by the AP.The Russians have been particularly interested in US drone technology over the last few years, targeting contractors who work on projects like the new-generation US Reaper made by General Atomics and the US Air Force's uncrewed X-37B, an experimental spaceplane that spends years in orbit on secretive missions.
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Autonomous flight is already being tested and conceptualized: Lilium Aviation recently tested its all-electric, two-seater, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype; Tel Aviv-based Urban Aeronautics has plans to build a four-person, hydrogen-powered "flying car" by 2022; and Airbus Defence and Space recently completed a successful test of Sagitta, an uncrewed aerial vehicle, which flew autonomously for seven minutes on a pre-programmed course in Overberg, South Africa.
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Boeing launched its Starliner CST-100 commercial crew spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time on Friday morning in an uncrewed test, and while an error with the onboard mission clock meant that the Starliner didn't reach its target orbit as intended and subsequently didn't have enough fuel on board to actually meet up and dock with the ISS, it's still doing as much testing as it can to complete other mission objectives.
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