Dragon Archives - Defence Monitor

04 Jun

NASA-SpaceX Dragon launches 7,300lb of cargo to space station

Washington: NASA has launched SpaceX's Dragon resupply spacecraft with more than 7,300 pounds of science experiments, new solar arrays, and other cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at 1.29 p.m. EDT on Thursday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency has said. It is scheduled to autonomously dock at the ISS around 5 a.m. Saturday, June 5, and remain at the station for about a month.SpaceX will deliver a pair of new ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) to the ISS. After the Dragon docks to the ISS's…

03 May

Crew Dragon capsule destroyed in ground test: SpaceX

Washington: SpaceX has confirmed that its Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during an engine test last month, possibly causing a drag to the company's plan to bring astronauts into space this year.On April 20, an anomaly occurred during a testing of the Crew Dragon's abort engines at a landing zone of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but the private space company had not clarified whether the capsule, launched successfully into space in an unmanned mission in March, was destroyed or not, until Thursday. Before firing the abort engines, "there was an anomaly and the vehicle was destroyed," said Hans Koenigsmann, vice…

26 Apr

Crew Dragon explosion probe to ‘take time’: NASA

San Francisco: Even as an investigation into the Crew Dragon engine failure in a test last week has started, finding out the root cause of the problem may take time, a top NASA official has said. The SpaceX Crew Dragon is designed to carry humans to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft completed a successful uncrewed journey to the ISS in March. "SpaceX is leading the investigation with active NASA participation," Patricia Sanders, Sanders, Head of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), was quoted as saying by CNET. "The investigation will take time before the root cause analysis is completed,"…

04 Mar

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon docks with ISS

Washington: The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday on its debut unmanned flight.After making 18 orbits of Earth since its launch, the spacecraft attached to the ISS via "soft capture" at 5:51 a.m. EST (10:51 GMT), Xinhua news agency reported. Flight computers guided the spacecraft directly into a docking port, unlike the previous cargo Dragon spacecraft that were attached to the space station after captured by a robotic arm.The crew members are expected to open the capsule's hatch and hold a welcome ceremony for the spacecraft, which will remain docked to the…

04 Aug

SpaceX targets August 13 for next resupply mission to ISS

Washington: SpaceX is targetting August 13 for the launch of its 12th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will boost a Dragon spacecraft filled with almost 2,721.5 kg of supplies from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said. The payloads include crucial materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 52 and 53. About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and deploy its solar arrays. A carefully choreographed series of thruster…

09 Feb

SpaceX to launch 10th resupply ship to space station next week

Washington: US aerospace major SpaceX has targetted February 18 for the launch of its 10th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is targetted to liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. "Targeting February 18 for Dragon's next resupply mission to the @Space_Station ? our 1st launch from LC-39A at @NASA's Kennedy Space Center," the Hawthorne-headquartered company tweeted on Wednesday. "The Expedition 50 crew trained today for the robotic capture of the SpaceX Dragon and studied how the brain adapts to living in space. Three crew…