July 2015 – Page 4 – Spaceflight Now

Delta 4/WGS 7 launch timeline

July 19, 2015 Justin Ray

Follow the Delta 4 rocket’s ascent into orbit from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 37 launch pad with the U.S. Air Force’s WGS 7 communications satellite.

Fly over Pluto’s newly-explored surfaces

July 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

Using three images beamed back to Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft’s long-range camera, scientists created this jaw-dropping animation of what it might look like to buzz Pluto from 25 miles up.

Scientists find signs of potential geysers on Pluto

July 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

New results from NASA’s New Horizons mission, which zipped about 7,700 miles from faraway Pluto on Tuesday, show puzzling icy landforms covered in frozen carbon monoxide and mysterious dark smudges, which may be evidence for plumes erupting from Pluto’s warmer interior, scientists said Friday.

Photos: Ariane 5 rocket blazes into orbit

July 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

A powerful Ariane 5 rocket soared into space with a European weather satellite and Brazilian telecom platform this week, lighting up its remote French Guiana spaceport carved out of the jungle on the northern coast of South America. Check out imagery of the sunset blastoff.

Photos: WGS 7 readied for launch

July 18, 2015 Justin Ray

This collection of photographs shows the Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM communications satellite No. 7 being encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 nose cone and hoisted atop the rocket for launch July 22.

Scientists share first close-up snapshot of Charon

July 16, 2015 Stephen Clark

A day after revealing mind-boggling ice mountains on Pluto, researchers from NASA’s New Horizons mission on Thursday released a detailed view of its companion Charon, showing a frozen, lightly-cratered world with an intriguing landform scientists have dubbed a ‘mountain in a moat.’

Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars

July 16, 2015 Justin Ray

A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the GPS 2F-10 spacecraft.

Weather satellite, Brazilian payload launched on Ariane 5

July 16, 2015 Stephen Clark

A new spin-stabilized European weather observatory hitched a ride into space aboard an Ariane 5 rocket Wednesday, accompanying a Brazilian television broadcasting craft on a launch from French Guiana into Earth orbit.

OTD…July 16 and Apollo 11

July 16, 2015 Justin Ray

OTD in 1969…The launch of Apollo 11 for the first human landing on the moon

Scientists thrilled with mountains on Pluto, chasms on Charon

July 15, 2015 William Harwood

Images from NASA’s New Horizons probe show Pluto is a surprisingly active world in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, with jagged 11,000-foot-high mountains of frozen water dusted with a veneer of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide ice amid smooth plains and jumbled terrain.