crew

As Elon Musk’s crusade against Twitter Inc. escalated from a war of words to a full-on takeover, he was egged on behind the scenes by a mix of voices—from fellow billionaires to internet trolls—with their own beefs with the social-media platform.In Mr. Musk, a serial entrepreneur with a hard Twitter habit, these men found a vessel for pent-up animosity over the company’s content moderation and management. One of them had a very personal stake: Twitter’s co-founder and former Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, who resigned last…

NASA has granted three more missions — Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 — to SpaceX as part of its Commercial Human Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract for crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS). This takes the space agency's total number of crewed missions to the ISS to nine, including the three successful operational trips over the last two years. The original $2.6-billion (roughly Rs. 19,700 crore) contract was awarded to SpaceX in 2014 for the development of American crewed launch…

SpaceX has ended production of new Crew Dragon astronaut capsules, a company executive told Reuters, as Elon Musk's space transportation company heaps resources on its next-generation spaceship program.Capping the fleet at four Crew Dragons adds more urgency to the development of the astronaut capsule's eventual successor, Starship, SpaceX's moon and Mars rocket. Starship's debut launch has been delayed for months by engine development hurdles and regulatory reviews.It also poses new challenges as the company learns how…

There has been a considerable amount of support for Ukraine in the US amidst its war with Russia, from countries and companies alike. The latest firm to show solidarity with the European nation is billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos' commercial space tourism company Blue Origin. Its latest space flight on Thursday featured the Ukrainian national flag. One of the six crew members of the fourth crewed flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle to suborbital space carried the flag as a symbol of support to the Ukrainian…

The first all-private astronaut team ever to fly aboard the International Space Station (ISS) departed the orbiting outpost on Sunday to begin a descent back to Earth, capping a two-week science mission hailed as a milestone in commercial spaceflight.A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-man team from the Houston-based startup company Axiom Space undocked from the ISS at about 9:10pm EDT (6:40am IST) to embark on a 16-hour return flight, a live NASA webcast showed.The Axiom astronauts, garbed in their helmeted…

Three wealthy businessmen and a former NASA astronaut splashed down Monday off the Florida coast after spending more than two weeks aboard the International Space Station, in a landmark mission for the commercial sector.After a dizzying descent, a SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the Axiom-1 gently floated down to the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville at 1:06 pm (1706 GMT, or 10:36pm IST) on four huge parachutes.The spaceship was affectionately referred to as a "toasted marshmallow" because of the scorch marks on its heat…

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX was due to launch the next long-duration astronaut crew to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA early on Wednesday, including a medical doctor turned spacewalker and a geologist specializing in Martian landslides.The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Freedom, was set for liftoff with its four-member crew at 3:52 am EDT (0752 GMT, or 1.22pm IST) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.If…

Days after a SpaceX Dragon capsule crewed by wealthy adventurers splashed down off Florida's coast, another launched Wednesday, this time for a NASA mission to the International Space Station.The Crew-4 mission blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 am (0752 GMT, or 1:22pm IST), carrying Americans Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, as well as Italian Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency.The event was livestreamed on NASA's website and social media.The rapid turnaround time for SpaceX…

Update April 27th, 4:18AM ET: SpaceX successfully launched the crew from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:52AM ET. The astronauts will now spend roughly 17 hours en route to the ISS, and are due to dock with the space station at around 8:15PM ET, reports Reuters. Original Story: In the early morning hours, SpaceX is set to launch its seventh crewed mission to orbit, this time sending three NASA astronauts and an Italian astronaut to the International Space Station. Their launch will spark the beginning of a six-month…