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VIDEO 3 min. 52 sec. Cape Canaveral: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Explodes During the 7th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-7) Launch
SpaceX Mission Fails, Russia Offers Backup, and Vice Versa
SpaceX is leading the investigation into the Falcon 9 explosion’s cause.
Want breaking news on SpaceX, ISS? Follow their Twitter Feeds.
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SpaceX’s 6 prior missions, including the April, 2015 Commercial Resupply Mission (CRS-6), had gone smoothly.
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What do the SpaceX rocket and cargo capsule look like?
The SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket (without the Dragon capsule and base)
The SpaceX Dragon capsule
Dragon Capsule – Pressurized Section
Dragon Capsule – Trunk and Solar Arrays
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Watch (and hear) the historic moment when solar arrays deployed on Dragon’s first cargo delivery flight to the ISS, in 2012
VIDEO 4 min. 25 sec. Would the solar arrays successfully deploy?
Solar Arrays Installed on SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft
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See the docking of the Dragon capsule in action in this video.
VIDEO: 9 min. 35 sec.
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Watch these two videos of a successful and nearly successful landing of the Falcon 9 reusable rocket
Successful landing of Falcon 9 rocket, June 15, 2014
VIDEO 4 min. 46 sec. 2014 Landing at SpaceX rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas
Nearly successful landing of Falcon 9 rocket, April 20, 2015
VIDEO 3 min. 6 sec. April 20, 2015 SpaceX CRS-6 Barge Landing – Synchronized Cameras with Zoom Closeup
The reusability goal for the Falcon 9 rocket has been difficult and testing is ongoing.
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SpaceX has designed a version of the Dragon capsule to carry astronauts.
VIDEO 47 seconds: Animation of how the Crew Dragon is anticipated to land.
VIDEO 4 min. 43 sec. May 31, 2014, SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, demonstrated the Dragon Crew/DragonRider
VIDEO 2 min. 7 sec., May 8, 2015, SpaceX Pad Abort Test
Musk discussed the future abort tests in a 2014 interview.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk discussed the present and future landing capability envisioned for the Crew Dragon
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The Russian Soyuz capsule provides a model of the landing capability Musk hopes to achieve.
VIDEO: 5 min. 8 sec. June 11, 2015 Landing of the Soyuz space capsule
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If you like detail, watch this video of the steps observed by the Soyuz astronauts in docking with the International Space Station.
VIDEO 20 min. 22 sec., November 21, 2014, Russian Soyuz Capsule
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INFOGRAPHIC: This infographic compares the Soyuz spaceship size to that of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceshipOne and Spaceshiptwo.
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INFOGRAPHIC: NASA 2013 depiction of spacecraft visiting the International Space Station
Various international cargo ships servicing the International Space Station have seen failures.
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The Russian government’s “Progress M” (English translation) spacecraft can now return cargo to Earth.
A bit more detail on the Progress 59 failure in April, 2015
Doomed Russian Space Station Cargo Ship Will Fall Back to Earth Soon
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International cooperation keeps ISS astronauts supplied despite launch failures.
The Soyuz-U carrier rocket with the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft set off for the ISS as planned on July 3, 2015.
The Unpiloted Russian ISS Progress . . . Russian Cargo Vessel To Bring Supplies to ISS After Falcon 9 Rocket Failure
In April, 2015, the SpaceX cargo delivery backed up the failed Russian Progress flight.
The spokesperson for Roscomos expressed support for the ISS astronauts as well as the SpaceX launch and cargo delivery effort.
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