2015 – Page 38 – Spaceflight Now

NASA space station program manager stepping down

August 5, 2015 William Harwood

Mike Suffredini, manager of NASA’s International Space Station program, is stepping down after 10 years overseeing the lab’s final assembly and transition to post-shuttle operations, the agency said Wednesday. Kirk Shireman, deputy director of the Johnson Space Center, will take over as program manager.

Watch the moon transit the Earth

August 5, 2015 Stephen Clark

Spectacular views from a NOAA space weather observatory show the sunlit far side of the moon crossing the face of the Earth from a distant vantage point a million miles away.

Atlas 5 rocket awarded commercial launch for EchoStar

August 5, 2015 Justin Ray

A powerhouse Internet-from-space communications satellite will be launched from the Cape next year atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, officials announced Wednesday.

NASA picks candidates for new space telescope

August 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected three finalists for a new Explorer-class astrophysics satellite mission scheduled to launch by the end of 2020, and two of the proposals aim to fulfill similar goals to an X-ray telescope shelved after cost overruns in 2012.

Orion service module still seen as schedule driver

August 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

The pace of the European Space Agency’s development of a power and propulsion module for NASA’s Orion crew capsule will likely determine when an unpiloted test flight of the spaceship and its heavy-lift rocket will take off, NASA officials said last week.

OTD…Aug. 2 and STS-43

August 2, 2015 Justin Ray

#OTD in 1991…Atlantis launched another of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites

Atlas 5 team begins stacking most powerful variant for Navy launch

July 31, 2015 Justin Ray

Continuing a run of military satellite deployments this summer, United Launch Alliance has begun stacking the Atlas 5 rocket that will boost the Navy’s next mobile communications craft.

OTD…July 31 and STS-46

July 31, 2015 Justin Ray

#OTD in 1992…Atlantis launched to test the Tethered Satellite System

NASA: Tracking CubeSats is easy, but many stay in orbit too long

July 30, 2015 Stephen Clark

U.S. military radars have little trouble tracking the flux of CubeSats filling orbital traffic lanes, diminishing worries that new commercial CubeSat constellations could generate collision hazards in space, according to a report issued by NASA last week.

Video shows SpaceShipTwo just before fatal crash

July 29, 2015 Stephen Clark

A video released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane drop from its carrier aircraft, ignite its motor, and prematurely engage its braking system just before disintegrating high above California’s Mojave Desert last October.