December 2015 – Page 5 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz TMA-19M launch-to-docking timeline

December 14, 2015 William Harwood

Track the progress of the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft and its three-man crew through Tuesday’s countdown, launch and docking with the International Space Station.

Photos: Zenit rocket soars on perhaps its last launch

December 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Zenit rocket fired away from a Kazakh launch pad Friday with a Russian weather satellite, and the launch marked what could be the Ukrainian-made booster’s final flight.

Curiosity rover reaches Martian sand dunes

December 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Curiosity rover is studying sand dunes towering up to two stories tall, returning new images showing a rippled landscape that represents a case of still-active geology on the red planet.

Russian data relay satellite launched by Proton rocket

December 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

A secretive Russian military communications satellite arrived in geostationary orbit Sunday after a successful liftoff aboard a Proton rocket, the Russian defense ministry said.

Falcon 9’s near-term manifest coming into focus

December 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s launch of a cluster of communications satellites for Orbcomm, set for as soon as next weekend, holds the headlines, but the company’s Falcon 9 rocket could fly at least four times in the next two months, assuming smooth launch campaigns and no glitches.

Russian weather satellite lifts off aboard Zenit rocket

December 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

A weather satellite to help civilian and military forecasters track storm systems over Russia’s vast territory launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday aboard a Ukrainian-built Zenit rocket, perhaps on its final flight as Russian-Ukrainian relations sour and demand wanes for the 1980s-era launcher.

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan, bringing three station crewmen back to Earth

December 11, 2015 William Harwood

Three space station fliers floated into their Soyuz ferry craft, undocked from the lab complex and plunged back to Earth Friday, making a rare nighttime landing in snowy Kazakhstan to close out a 141-day stay in orbit.

Live coverage: International crew lands in Kazakhstan

December 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, flanked by Japanese flight engineer Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, boarded a Soyuz landing craft Friday and made a parachute-assisted touchdown in Kazakhstan at 1312 GMT (8:12 a.m. EST) to close out more than 141 days on the International Space Station.

Rugged swath of Pluto now resolved in color

December 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

A high-resolution scan of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft published last week is now available in color, thanks to a new image release from NASA on Thursday showing craters, mountains and glaciers in a new light.

Three space station fliers set for landing Friday

December 10, 2015 William Harwood

In a rapid-fire crew exchange, three space station fliers return to Earth Friday morning, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan just four days before their replacements blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome a few hundred miles away, boosting the lab’s crew back to six.