January 2016 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz prepared for first flight from Siberian cosmodrome

January 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

The first Soyuz rocket to launch from a new cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East is being assembled for liftoff in April with a package of small research satellites.

OTD…Jan. 31 and Apollo 14

January 31, 2016 Justin Ray

Today in 1971…The launch of Apollo 14 to Fra Mauro with Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell.

GPS satellite moves to Atlas 5 facility for launch next Friday

January 30, 2016 Justin Ray

After a quarter-century readying Global Positioning System satellites for launch at a Cape Canaveral Air Force Station processing hub, the final bird rolled out Saturday as the navigation program transitions to a new era.

European communications relay satellite launched by Proton rocket

January 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

A commercial satellite designed to broadcast hundreds of television channels across Europe and better link European surveillance satellites and the International Space Station to scientists on the ground took off Friday from Kazakhstan aboard a Proton rocket.

Water ice abounds in Pluto’s frigid bedrock

January 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

New maps produced from data gathered during the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby of Pluto last year show surprisingly widespread water ice shaping mountains capped by methane snow and forming an underlying bedrock blanketing the distant world.

Live coverage: Proton fires into space with Eutelsat 9B

January 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

A television broadcasting satellite for Eutelsat launched Friday atop a Russian Proton rocket to begin a 15-year mission beaming TV programming into homes across Europe. The Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2220 GMT (5:20 p.m. EST) Friday.

Photos: Ariane 5 climbs away from jungle launch pad

January 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A European Ariane 5 rocket took off on its first flight of the year Wednesday with a new-generation communications satellite for Intelsat, lighting up the sky over its French Guiana launch base as it arced over the Atlantic Ocean.

Laser-equipped satellite to inaugurate European data relay system

January 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

The first node of a space-based European laser communications network will soar into orbit Friday aboard a commercial Eutelsat broadcasting spacecraft, setting the keystone for a satellite system to relay vast volumes of imagery at lightning fast speeds.

Families, NASA honor fallen astronauts

January 28, 2016 William Harwood

On the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, crew families, friends and space workers gathered Thursday to remember the 17 men and women who lost their lives on the high frontier, 14 in two space shuttle disasters and three in an Apollo-era launch pad fire 49 years ago Wednesday.

First Intelsat Epic satellite deployed by Ariane 5 rocket

January 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A powerhouse communications satellite with up to five times the capacity of most existing telecom craft reached orbit Wednesday after a nighttime blastoff from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, marking an auspicious start to the deployment of Intelsat’s $2 billion next-generation satellite network.