August 2015 – Page 5 – Spaceflight Now

Stormy forecast prompts delay for Japanese resupply mission

August 17, 2015 Stephen Clark

The launch of a Japanese cargo ship with more than 4.5 tons of supplies bound for the International Space Station has been rescheduled for Wednesday due to a poor weather forecast at the mission’s island launch base.

Rocket engine fires up in latest test for behemoth booster

August 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

A hydrogen-fueled rocket engine ignited with a bone-rattling sonic wave Thursday at NASA’s test facility in Southern Mississippi, throttling up to more than a half-million pounds of thrust to verify upgrades to the space shuttle’s main engines can power a humongous new launcher off the planet.

Shuttle-era rocket engine primed for test firing

August 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA plans to fire up a space shuttle-era rocket engine in Mississippi on Thursday for nearly nine minutes to validate upgrades to the powerplant for the Space Launch System, a new mega-rocket under development to boost astronauts on missions to deep space.

Attention social media users: See an Atlas 5 launch up close!

August 13, 2015 Justin Ray

United Launch Alliance is giving members of the public a behind-the-scenes look during one of its Atlas 5 rocket flights from Cape Canaveral.

Second launch deal inked between Atlas 5 rocket and Cygnus freighter

August 12, 2015 Justin Ray

Orbital ATK has ordered another Atlas 5 rocket to launch a second commercial Cygnus cargo craft for the International Space Station.

Scientists plan for New Horizons probe’s second act

August 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Scientists are about to decide where to send NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft next, and it is down to two candidates at the frozen frontier of the solar system to become the most distant object ever visited by a human-built space probe.

Rosetta gets ringside seat to smelly comet outburst

August 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft has recorded a brilliant beam of gas and dust shooting into space from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the most spectacular such emission since the probe arrived at the tiny frozen world one year ago.

Astronauts munch on space-grown lettuce

August 10, 2015 William Harwood

Amid a Russian spacewalk to carry out routine maintenance and inspections outside the International Space Station, two NASA astronauts and a Japanese crewmate staged a culinary first in orbit — harvesting and eating a few leaves of leafy, space-grown red romaine lettuce.

NASA troubleshoots radar outage on new SMAP satellite

August 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

Engineers have so far been unable to restart a balky radar aboard NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive environmental satellite launched in January, robbing scientists of the most detailed maps of how much water is locked up in the top layers of Earth’s land masses.

Swiss company to move Atlas 5 work to Alabama

August 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

Ruag Space, the Swiss manufacturer of nose shrouds for the Atlas 5 rocket, plans to relocate production of Atlas launcher components to United Launch Alliance’s rocket assembly plant in Decatur, Alabama.