OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dicit:

The SpaceX Starship is a fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX since 2012, as a self-funded private spaceflight project.

The second stage of the Starship — is designed as a long-duration cargo and passenger-carrying spacecraft. It is expected to be initially used without any booster stage at all, as part of an extensive development program to prove out launch-and-landing and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to the vehicle’s atmospheric reentry.

While the spacecraft will be tested on its own at suborbital altitudes, it will be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where the spacecraft will serve as the second stage on a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle.

Integrated system testing of a proof of concept for Starship began in March 2019, with the addition of a single Raptor rocket engine to a reduced-height prototype, nicknamed Starhopper — similar to Grasshopper, an equivalent prototype of the Falcon 9 reusable booster. Starhopper was used from April through August 2019 for static testing and low-altitude, low-velocity flight testing of vertical launches and landings in July and August 2019. More prototype Starships are under construction and are expected to go through several iterations. All test articles have a 9 metres (30 ft) of diameter stainless steel hull.

SpaceX is planning to launch commercial payloads using Starship no earlier than 2021. In April 2020, NASA selected a modified human rated Starship system as one of three lunar landing systems to receive funding for a 10-month long initial design phase for the Artemis program.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Dragon Crew Demo-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named Endeavour, launched on 30 May 2020 at 19:22:45 UTC and carried NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken to the International Space Station in the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, in 2011, and the first ever operated by a commercial provider. Demo-2 was also the first two-person orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since STS-4 in 1982.

Demo-2 was intended to complete the validation of crewed spaceflight operations using SpaceX hardware and to receive human-rating certification for the spacecraft, including astronaut testing of Crew Dragon capabilities on orbit. During their time aboard, Behnken conducted four spacewalks with fellow American astronaut Chris Cassidy to replace batteries brought up by a Japanese cargo vehicle.

Docking and undocking operations were autonomously controlled by the Crew Dragon, but monitored by the flight crew in case manual intervention becomes necessary. The spacecraft soft docked with the International Space Station at 14:16 UTC on 31 May 2020. Following soft capture, 12 hooks were closed to complete a hard capture 11 minutes later. Hurley and Behnken worked alongside the crew of Expedition 63 for 62 days. Endeavour autonomously undocked from the station at 23:35 UTC on 1 August 2020 and returned the astronauts to Earth on 2 August 2020 in the first water landing by astronauts since 1975.

Endeavour will be refurbished and reused for the SpaceX Crew-2 mission, expected to launch in February 2021. Crew Dragon’s next mission, SpaceX Crew-1 — SpaceX’s first operational astronaut flight — is slated to fly with four Expedition 64 astronauts in late September 2020.

Video credit: NASA/SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

Atlas V is the fifth major version in the Atlas rocket family. It is an expendable launch system originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed and Boeing.

Each Atlas V rocket consists of two main stages. The first stage is powered by a Russian RD-180 engine manufactured by RD Amross and burning kerosene and liquid oxygen. The Centaur upper stage is powered by one or two US RL10 engine(s) manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. AJ-60A strap-on solid rocket boosters (SRBs) are used in some configurations and will be replaced by GEM-63 SRBs in the near future. The standard payload fairings are 4 or 5 meters in diameter with various lengths.

Video credit: ULA

ULA dicit:

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket will launch NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars. The spacecraft will explore the Jezero Crater to study the planet’s habitability, seek signs of past microbial life, collect and store samples of selected rock and soil and prepare for future human missions. The rover also carries the Ingenuity helicopter, a technology demonstration to prove that powered flight can be achieved at Mars.

Video credit: United Launch Alliance

Wikipedia dicit:

OmegA is a launch vehicle in development by Northrop Grumman as an NSSL replacement program intended for national security and commercial satellites.

OmegA is similar to the defunct Ares I and Liberty projects, both of which consisted of a five segment Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) and a cryogenic second stage. Ares I would have combined a five-segment SRB with a J-2X powered second stage, while Liberty would have used a five-segment SRB with the core stage of the European Ariane 5 as a second stage. By comparison, OmegA consists of new composite solid rocket stages with a cryogenic upper stage provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne. This is replacing earlier plans to use an upper stage provided by Blue Origin. It is intended to be launched from Kennedy Space Center LC-39B or Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-6.

OmegA is proposed as a vehicle to launch national security satellites for the United States Air Force, and could launch other government and commercial payloads, including to geostationary transfer orbit. Crewed spacecraft could also be launched, just as the predecessor Ares I and Liberty rockets, which were designed to launch the Orion space capsule.

Video credit: Northrop Grumman

NASA dicit:

Engineers at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Elkton, Maryland successfully conducted the third and final test of the attitude control motor (ACM) that provides steering for the Launch Abort System (LAS) on NASA’s Orion spacecraft, qualifying the motor for Artemis II, Orion’s first mission with astronauts. The LAS, consisting of three solid rocket motors, is designed to carry crew to safety in the event of an emergency during launch or ascent atop the agency’s Space Launch System rocket.

During the 30-second test, eight high pressure valves directed more than 7,000 pounds of thrust in multiple directions while firing at freezing conditions. All three motors on the LAS will be qualified for crewed flights ahead of Artemis II, another step that brings NASA closer to sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024.

Video credit: NASA Johnson