#Nasa spacex falcon 9 rocket upgrade#

#Nasa spacex falcon 9 rocket upgrade#

SpaceX is working to upgrade the Falcon 9 and the Dragon to carry astronauts to the space station as early as 2017. 'We will work closely with SpaceX to understand what happened, fix the problem and return to flight.' 'However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months,' Bolden said. In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden voiced disappointment over Sunday's loss. He said that flight might now be rescheduled for as early as October. Gerstenmaier noted that a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was scheduled to launch Orbital's Cygnus cargo capsule to the station in December. If the stockpile dwindles to a 45-day supply, he said NASA and its partners would have to consider bringing the crew back to Earth, he said. Suffredini said the station's residents currently have enough food and other supplies to see them through October.

'Having three this close together is not what we hoped for,' said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.Īnother Progress ship is scheduled to be sent to the station from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 3, and a robotic Japanese HTV transport ship is due to follow in August. Related: Double Space Failure Teaches Students a Lesson One of the student experiments aboard the Dragon was a rebuilt version of an experiment that flew on the failed Orbital resupply mission. In addition to April's Progress failure, Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket malfunctioned after launch in October, resulting in the loss of a space station shipment. Sunday's loss marks SpaceX's first failed mission to the space station, and extends a string of setbacks for space station resupply. No one knew it meant failure.' 'A tough day' And then, a poof of smoke,' said Whitney Jackson of Palm Beach, Florida. The Associated Press reported that the fireworks initially confused some of the spectators who were watching the launch from beaches near Cape Canaveral: 'It looked fine until it was almost out of sight.

Ken Kremer / Īfter stage separation, the Falcon 9's first stage was supposed to attempt a landing on a oceangoing platform - but the flight never got that far. 'A terribly sad day for spaceflight, but we can't give up,' he wrote in an email. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from its launch pad, in a photo captured by scientist/photographer Ken Kremer from the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The primary objective of Sunday's mission was to deliver the Dragon to the space station with more than two and a half tons of supplies, equipment and experiments - ranging from a new docking adapter for accommodating future U.S.-built spaceships to a virtual-reality headset for the station's crew.