Starships

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Aerospace companies Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of two private companies that have sent a spacecraft on the International Space Station, and Alliant Techsystems Inc., better known as ATK, announced they have reached an agreement for their merger. This operation will be preceded by an internal reorganization of ATK, which will be split to create a new company from ATK Sporting Group, the division that produces sport weapons. The other two divisions, ATK Aerospace Group and ATK Defense Group, together with Orbital Sciences will form Orbital ATK.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifting off on a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blasted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-3 (Cargo Resupply Service 3) mission, also known as SPX-3. This is the third of 12 missions that include the sending of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with various cargos and then return to Earth, again with various cargos.

Dale Gardner's official NASA picture

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Wednesday February 19, 2014 the astronaut Dale Gardner passed away due to a brain aneurysm. During his career as an astronaut, he flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger in mission STS-8 and on the Space Shuttle Discovery in mission STS-51-A. In his last mission, he recovered two satellites placed in the wrong orbit using a jetpack.