September 2015 – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Q&A with Rolf de Groot, head of ESA’s robotic exploration office

September 25, 2015 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark spoke with Rolf de Groot, head of ESA’s robotic exploration coordination office, on Sept. 25, discussing the two-month launch delay of Europe’s ExoMars orbiter and landing demonstrator set to depart for Mars in 2016 and the status of an ambitious rover mission in 2018.

Mexican communications satellite put aboard Atlas 5 rocket for launch

September 25, 2015 Justin Ray

A 12,000-pound Mexican mobile communications satellite was hoisted atop its Atlas 5 rocket today as crews finished assembling the vehicle for United Launch Alliance’s 100th liftoff next week.

First static fire completed on upgraded Falcon 9

September 25, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9 booster powered up to full throttle in a brief ignition at the company’s Central Texas test site this week as engineers prepare for the rocket’s return to flight as soon as mid-November with a European communications satellite.

OTD…Sept. 25 and STS-86

September 25, 2015 Justin Ray

#OTD in 1997…Atlantis launched on the seventh joint docking mission with Russia’s space station Mir

Secrets behind Pluto’s pastels far from being answered

September 24, 2015 Stephen Clark

Geologists said Thursday they are bewildered by images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft baring unseen landscapes on Pluto with unexpected “snakeskin” textures, colorful chasms routing through ancient landforms, and vivid new views of apparent glacial flows.