SpaceX

The Crew Dragon spacecraft starts its SPX-DM2 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA TV)

1

A little while ago SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its SpX-DM2 (SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2) or SpaceX Demo-2 mission. After about eleven minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and went en route to carry out its mission. This is the first crewed mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, in this case with Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on board.

The Moon landers by Dynetics, SpaceX and Blue Origin / National Team

0

NASA has announced the choice of three companies to design and develop human landing systems for the Artemis program. These are essentially plans for a lunar lander among which one will be selected to be built for the mission that, according to plans, is supposed to bring American astronauts back to the Moon by 2024. The companies selected are Blue Origin (actually the first contractor for a group called National Team), Dynetics, and SpaceX. This stage of development involves a 10-month base period during which companies and NASA will work together on the selected projects. The total contract value is $967 million.

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing International Space Station to end its CRS-20 mission (Image NASA TV)

1

A few hours ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-20 (Cargo Resupply Service 20) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly in the Pacific Ocean a bit more than 800 kilometers (about 500 miles) off the coast of California. The Dragon left the International Space Station yesterday. For SpaceX, this is the conclusion of the first contract with NASA to transport resupplies to the Station with the first version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Shortly after landing, SpaceX boats went to retrieve the Dragon to transport it to the coast. The cargo brought back to Earth will be delivered to NASA soon, probably tomorrow. The Dragon spacecraft reached the International Space Station on March 9, 2020.

Artist's concept of the Dragon XL cargo spacecraft after separating from the Falcon Heavy rocket's second stage (Image courtesy SpaceX)

0

NASA has announced that it has selected SpaceX as the first supplier in the Gateway Logistics Services contract to transport cargo, experiments and other supplies to the Lunar Gateway, part of the Artemis program that aims to bring astronauts back to the Moon. At least two missions will be carried out with the Dragon XL cargo spacecraft, a new variant of the Dragon 2 cargo optimized to carry over 5 metric tons of cargo to the Moon’s orbit. The timeline for these missions isn’t clear due to the NASA’s changes of plans, as recently the agency decided to skip the use of the Lunar Gateway for the mission that’s supposed to take place by 2024 and use it in the following years.