2015 – Page 53 – Spaceflight Now

Bright blobs on Ceres ready for their close-up

June 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft got its first glimpse of mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres on final approach early this year, and scientists Thursday released the sharpest view of the features yet.

Three station fliers set for return to Earth

June 10, 2015 William Harwood

Three space station crew members packed up for a fiery return to Earth Thursday, wrapping up a nearly 200-day mission that was extended one month at the last minute because of a Russian rocket failure in April that threw a wrench into the lab’s crew rotation schedule.

LightSail hailed as precursor for low-cost planetary missions

June 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

Managers in charge of the privately-funded LightSail solar sail in Earth orbit said Wednesday the success of the experiment is a step toward opening up the solar system to scores of modest science probes that could explore space at a fraction of the cost of traditional government-backed missions.

NASA confident in finding fix for test parachute failure

June 9, 2015 Stephen Clark

One day after a supersonic parachute crafted to land robots on Mars failed on a test flight high above Hawaii, NASA officials said Tuesday a jackpot of high-resolution video recordings and other data from the otherwise successful experiment should lead to design improvements.

Russia updates launch schedule for ISS crews, cargo

June 9, 2015 Stephen Clark

The next three-person crew will launch to the International Space Station sometime between July 23 and July 25 after a two-month delay triggered by the failure of an unmanned Progress resupply mission in April, Russian officials said Tuesday.

DSCOVR space weather sentinel reaches finish line

June 8, 2015 Stephen Clark

A new space weather observatory launched in February has completed a four-month journey to an operating post a million miles from Earth, NOAA announced Monday.

Huge parachute shredded during Mars entry experiment

June 8, 2015 William Harwood

Flying more than twice the speed of sound 34 miles above Hawaii, a flying saucer-shaped test vehicle successfully inflated a doughnut-like airbrake, technology needed to slow heavy payloads down during descent to Mars, but a parachute ripped apart in the $230 million program’s second straight failure.

Year: 2015