November 2014 – Spaceflight Now

Ground team ready to rouse Pluto probe for historic flyby

November 30, 2014 Stephen Clark

On the final stretch of a speedy nine-year trek through the solar system, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will be awakened from hibernation Dec. 6 for an encounter with Pluto, a mysterious world that has captured imaginations and will soon be revealed in reality.

Launch of Japanese asteroid probe delayed

November 30, 2014 Stephen Clark

Poor weather at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan has grounded until at least Wednesday the launch of a $300 million robotic mission to fly to an asteroid, pick up samples and return them to Earth.

Thanksgiving in space

November 27, 2014 Stephen Clark

Six people living on the International Space Station shared an out-of-this-world Thanksgiving dinner in orbit.

Proton liftoff delayed by upper stage problem

November 27, 2014 Stephen Clark

A Proton rocket launch set will be delayed until December after Russian technicians discovered a faulty gyroscope on the launcher’s Breeze M upper stage.

SpaceX hopes to recover rocket intact after next launch

November 26, 2014 Stephen Clark

SpaceX will test out new stabilizing fins that could help land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge in the Atlantic Ocean after liftoff on a space station resupply mission in mid-December, according to Elon Musk, the company’s billionaire leader.

Previous flights of the Delta 4-Heavy

November 26, 2014 Justin Ray

As a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket prepares to carry NASA’s Orion spaceship on its first orbital flight test, we look back at the seven previous Heavy launches.

Photos: Delta 4-Heavy ready for Orion flight test

November 26, 2014 Justin Ray

The first flight test of Orion will be a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise to check critical systems of the crew capsule.

Three-person crew docks with space station

November 23, 2014 William Harwood

Five hours and 48 minutes after a sky-lighting launch from Kazakhstan, a Russian Soyuz ferry craft carrying a crew of three representing Russia, the United States and Italy glided to a smooth docking at the International Space Station.

Live coverage: Space station crew sheltering from possible ammonia leak

November 23, 2014 Stephen Clark

Two NASA astronauts and an Italian flight engineer are sheltering in the space station’s Russian segment as mission control analyzes a possible leak of toxic ammonia coolant aboard the complex.

VIDEO: Expedition 42 news conference on eve of launch

November 23, 2014 Justin Ray

Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and their backups hold a news conference on the eve of launch.