December 2015 – Page 7 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

December 7, 2015 Justin Ray

A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo-delivery spacecraft for the International Space Station.

New Russian military satellite declared lost

December 7, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Russian defense payload built to monitor maritime activity, and possibly track the movements of submarines, is stuck to the upper stage of its rocket after launching Saturday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, multiple Russian news agencies reported.

Atlas 5/Cygnus post-launch news conference

December 7, 2015 Spaceflight Now

Watch the post-launch news conference from the Kennedy Space Center following the successful launch of an Atlas 5 rocket on December 6, carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Atlas 5 rocket sends Cygnus in hot pursuit of space station

December 6, 2015 Justin Ray

Bound for an orbital rendezvous with the International Space Station on Wednesday, a commercial Cygnus freighter was successfully launched by an Atlas 5 rocket Sunday to restart American cargo deliveries to the research outpost.

Video: Liftoff of Atlas 5 on space station cargo mission

December 6, 2015 Justin Ray

A replay of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launching the Orbital ATK’s commercial Cygnus cargo freighter to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Japanese probe fires rockets to steer into orbit at Venus

December 6, 2015 Stephen Clark

Five years after missing a shot to enter orbit at Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft completed a critical rocket burn late Sunday in a bid to salvage the research mission and become the only space probe operating around Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor.

Russian military satellites orbited by stripped-down Soyuz rocket

December 6, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Russian satellite reportedly designed to track enemy submarines and a spacecraft to help calibrate ground-based military radars lifted off Saturday aboard a modified Soyuz rocket, but one of the payloads apparently failed to deploy from the launcher’s upper stage, according to Russian media.

Take a last look at the Vega rocket’s middle-of-the-night liftoff

December 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

Videos and photos help tell the story of Thursday’s launch of Europe’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, carrying high-tech thrusters and ultra-sensitive motion sensors to be used in a future gravitational wave detection mission, from French Guiana aboard a nearly 100-foot-tall (30-meter) Vega rocket.

See the highest-resolution snapshots from July’s Pluto flyby

December 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

Scientists are marveling at some of the best views of Pluto recorded by the New Horizons spacecraft during its July 14 flyby of the unexplored icy dwarf in a set of photos released Friday showing Pluto’s icy, rugged topography in eye-popping detail.

European probe blasts off on gravitational wave demonstration

December 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled Vega launcher fired through a low cloud deck and sped into orbit from the South American jungle early Thursday with a pioneering European spacecraft that marks a key step in a century-long quest to detect elusive gravitational waves predicted to permeate the cosmos.