July 2015 – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Live coverage: Three-man crew arrives at space station

July 22, 2015 Spaceflight Now

Three new space station residents blasted off Wednesday on a fast-track six-hour pursuit of the orbiting research complex, kicking off five months in space. The U.S.-Russian-Japanese space crew lifted off at 2102 GMT (5:02 p.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and docking occurred 0245 GMT (10:45 p.m. EDT).

Pluto probe’s camera sees striking geologic boundary

July 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

New views of Pluto’s unexpectedly complicated landscapes are coming back to Earth, revealing stark intersections between freshly-made bright icy plains and heavily-cratered darker terrain.

Live coverage: Delta 4 rocket lifts off

July 21, 2015 Justin Ray

The launch of the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM military communications satellite aboard a Delta 4 rocket booster occurred tonight at 8:07 p.m. EDT (0007 GMT) from Cape Canaveral.

Pluto’s moons Nix and Hydra resolved

July 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

Two of Pluto’s mini-moons, the mysterious Nix and Hydra, have transitioned from featureless points of light into their own worlds with new imagery from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.

First flight of Falcon Heavy delayed again

July 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX has slowed development of the Falcon Heavy rocket, a mega-booster made of three Falcon 9 booster cores strapped together, as the company recovers from a launch failure last month, delaying the new rocket’s debut until early 2016.

Soyuz ferry craft rides rails to launch pad

July 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

A three-stage Soyuz booster rocket, capped by a three-person crew transport capsule, rolled out to a launch pad in Kazakhstan on Monday, two days before blasting off with new residents headed for the International Space Station.

Support strut probable cause of Falcon 9 failure

July 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday.

NOAA satellite sends back view of planet Earth

July 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

Fulfilling an idea dreamed up by former Vice President Al Gore more than 17 years ago, NASA has released the first in a daily series of Earth snapshots from a newly-launched spacecraft stationed a million miles away.

$100 million initiative to search for ET

July 20, 2015 William Harwood

Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner is pledging $100 million to fund the most sophisticated search for extraterrestrials ever attempted, a 10-year campaign using radio and optical telescopes, ultra-sensitive detectors and state-of-the-art software to study nearby stars and galaxies for tell-tale signals of alien civilizations.

Preview: Enhanced rocket engine to power Delta 4 first stage Wednesday

July 19, 2015 Justin Ray

Using a new, uprated main engine for the first time on a rocket of its kind, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Medium+ vehicle will soar into space Wednesday night carrying a $566 million Air Force communications satellite.