May 2015 – Spaceflight Now

Tour comet 67P in Rosetta’s latest image release

May 31, 2015 Stephen Clark

The latest batch of images released from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission shows the brutal gray landscape of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in vivid detail.

U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomes 2015 class

May 30, 2015 Spaceflight Now

A proud “Hubble Hugger,” the final commander of shuttle Discovery, the first person to fly a docking to the International Space Station and one of the first U.S. women to join the astronaut ranks were inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Dashcam video records dazzling Soyuz docking

May 28, 2015 Stephen Clark

A video camera mounted inside a Russian Soyuz capsule captured stunning views of the docking of a U.S.-Russian crew to the International Space Station in March, supplying a spectacular visual of a cosmic ballet occurring 250 miles above Earth.

Boeing gets first order for commercial crew mission

May 28, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA has placed an order with Boeing for the first operational mission to ferry a crew to the International Space Station in a new era of commercial human spaceflight.

Space station module moved to clear path for cargo ships

May 28, 2015 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers powered up the International Space Station’s robotic arm and repositioned a storage module Wednesday to give visiting cargo delivery vehicles a second parking port at the complex.

DirecTV satellites blast off on Ariane 5 rocket

May 28, 2015 Stephen Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket fired into space from a tropical spaceport in French Guiana on Wednesday, successfully delivering two television broadcast satellites into high-altitude orbits for DirecTV and Sky Mexico.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 launches for DirecTV

May 27, 2015 Stephen Clark

Two direct-to-home broadcasting satellites have launched from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. Liftoff with DirecTV 15 and Sky Mexico 1 occurred at 2116 GMT (5:16 p.m. EDT) Wednesday.

X-37B spaceplane’s orbit discovered

May 27, 2015 Justin Ray

Hobbyists who keep track of the skies with remarkable precision have found the U.S. Air Force’s mini space shuttle in its no-longer-secret orbit around the Earth.

SpaceX cleared to launch U.S. national security satellites

May 27, 2015 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that SpaceX is now eligible to compete for launches of U.S. national security satellites, closing a tumultuous chapter in the U.S. rocket industry and ending the Pentagon’s sole reliance on United Launch Alliance to haul military payloads into orbit.

Ariane 5 ready to pull double duty for DirecTV

May 26, 2015 Stephen Clark

Two satellites equipped to broadcast television programming to millions of homes across the United States and Latin America are braced for launch from French Guiana on Wednesday aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.