Mission Reports – Page 83 – Spaceflight Now

Webb closes in on destination with critical mirror alignment on tap

January 22, 2022 William Harwood

Thirty days outbound from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will slip into its parking orbit a million miles away Monday, an ideal spot to scan the heavens in search of faint infrared light from the first generation of stars and galaxies.

Atlas 5 rocket delivers two military inspector satellites to high-altitude orbit

January 21, 2022 Stephen Clark

Two satellites for a once-classified U.S. military program to track and inspect other spacecraft in orbit — a mission the Space Force’s top general equates to a “neighborhood watch” — lifted off from Cape Canaveral Friday on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Science mission begins for NASA’s new eye on the X-ray universe

January 21, 2022 Stephen Clark

A NASA astronomy satellite that launched Dec. 9 from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX rocket has started observing the X-ray universe, beginning a mission to study the nature of black holes and the super-dense skeletons left behind by exploded stars.

Live coverage: Atlas 5 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral

January 21, 2022 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s first mission of the year debuted a new configuration of the company’s workhorse Atlas 5 rocket when it lifted off at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The rocket, featuring a wide fairing and a single solid rocket booster, is carrying two U.S. military tracking and inspection satellites into geosynchronous orbit during a nearly seven-hour flight sequence.

ULA’s first launch of 2022 to debut unflown variant of Atlas 5 rocket

January 20, 2022 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket has flown in 10 different configurations over 90 missions since 2002, each version optimized to haul satellites of a certain size and mass into space. The only variant of the Atlas 5 rocket yet to fly is set to launch Friday afternoon from Cape Canaveral with a pair of satellites to help the U.S. military keep track of traffic in geosynchronous orbit.

Atlas 5 rocket rolls to launch pad for Space Force mission

January 20, 2022 Stephen Clark

Gearing up for its first mission of the year, United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Thursday, a day before liftoff with a pair of U.S. Space Force satellites on a flight that will debut a version of the Atlas 5 never used before.

Spacewalking cosmonauts activate space station’s newest Russian module

January 19, 2022 Stephen Clark

Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov completed a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk Wednesday outside the International Space Station, preparing Russia’s new Prichal module for the arrival of the next Soyuz crew spacecraft in March.

SpaceX launches 2,000th Starlink satellite

January 19, 2022 Stephen Clark

A package of 49 Starlink satellites that rode a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Tuesday night from Florida included the 2,000th spacecraft to launch into SpaceX’s broadband internet network.

First Chinese space mission of 2022 rockets into orbit

January 17, 2022 Stephen Clark

China launched a Long March 2D rocket Monday with another classified satellite, deploying the spacecraft into a polar orbit on the first of more than 40 Chinese Long March rocket missions planned in 2022.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket with 49 Starlink satellites

January 17, 2022 Stephen Clark

Keeping up a rapid-fire launch cadence to begin 2022, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 49 Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff from pad 39A occurred at 9:02 p.m. EST Tuesday (0202 GMT Wednesday), following a one-day delay to wait for better conditions in the offshore booster recovery zone north of the Bahamas.