April 2015 – Page 5 – Spaceflight Now

OTD…April 19 and STS-100

April 19, 2015 Justin Ray

#OTD…Launch of Endeavour in 2001 to deliver Canadarm2 to the space station

Astronauts share views of Dragon cargo capsule

April 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

The International Space Station got a new shipment of supplies Friday, and astronauts living on the outpost shared their photos of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft during the rendezvous.

ULA sees clean handover of Boeing crew launches to Vulcan rocket

April 18, 2015 Justin Ray

United Launch Alliance vows a “seamless” switch from the Atlas 5 to the new Vulcan rocket in launches of Boeing’s astronaut taxis.

Photos: SpaceX’s debris-strewn landing barge back in port

April 17, 2015 Stephen Clark

Returning to port late Thursday under the cover of darkness, SpaceX’s rocket recovery platform has moored at a dock in Jacksonville, Florida, for unloading of charred debris from Tuesday’s crash landing of a Falcon 9 booster.

SpaceX supply ship joins up with space station

April 17, 2015 Stephen Clark

Packed with an array of experiments and provisions, including a custom-made Italian espresso maker, SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon cargo capsule reached the International Space Station on Friday after a precise laser-guided rendezvous more than 250 miles above Earth.

OTD…April 17 and STS-90

April 17, 2015 Justin Ray

#OTD…Launch of Columbia in 1998 on the Neurolab Spacelab mission

Pluto and Charon seen in color by New Horizons

April 16, 2015 Stephen Clark

Barreling toward a July 14 flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned its first color image of the distant world and its moon Charon, whetting the appetites of scientists as the probe prepares to begin taking the best-ever photos of the Pluto system beginning next month.

Certification process begins for Vulcan to carry military payloads

April 16, 2015 Justin Ray

The heavy-lift version of the United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket will sell for half the price of today’s Delta 4-Heavy and a third of the price tag for the previous Titan 4, while offering a substantial increase in performance for nation’s largest defense spacecraft.

No time wasted in SpaceX’s rapid-fire launch campaign

April 16, 2015 Stephen Clark

Hours after launching a batch of cargo and provisions to the International Space Station on Tuesday, SpaceX ground teams wheeled another Falcon 9 rocket into the hangar at Cape Canaveral for a commercial satellite launch set for April 27.

ULA gets futuristic

April 16, 2015 Justin Ray

United Launch Alliance revealed its visionary approach to space exploration in the next decade courtesy of the Vulcan rocket’s new, long-duration upper stage that can be fitted with as many as four engines to perform cargo resupply and astronaut transportation to far-flung destinations.