August 2016 – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Ariane 5 hitched to tug for rollout to the launch pad

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

A day before blastoff with two Intelsat communications satellites, an Ariane 5 rocket rolled into position on its launch pad in French Guiana on Tuesday behind a 540-horsepower Titan truck, and these close-up snapshots show technicians preparing for the journey.

Video: Walk around NASA’s new asteroid sample probe

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a walk around NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft less than three weeks before its Sept. 8 launch on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. Rich Kuhns, the mission’s program manager from Lockheed Martin, points out some of the major features on the probe.

Photos: OSIRIS-REx prepped for encapsulation

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to be sealed inside the nose fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket booster for a seven-year voyage to asteroid Bennu and back to Earth on a mission to seek out clues to the origin of life and the chaotic early solar system.

One of NASA’s cleanest spacecraft ever is ready to fly

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Five years after winning $1 billion from NASA to mount the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, scientists and engineers will get their last look at the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft this week as it is closed up inside the nose cone of an Atlas 5 rocket for launch in September.

Ariane 5 go for launch with all-American payload

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Launch managers in French Guiana on Monday approved plans to loft two U.S.-built communications for Intelsat aboard an Ariane 5 rocket Wednesday.

NASA ‘hears’ from lost spacecraft after nearly two years

August 23, 2016 William Harwood

NASA re-established contact with a wayward sun-watching science satellite Sunday nearly two years after the spacecraft suddenly dropped off line during a test, the agency said in a statement Monday.

Sophisticated new U.S. weather observatory being readied for launch

August 22, 2016 Justin Ray

On the cusp of advancing U.S. weather forecasting, a powerful new satellite was shipped from its Denver factory to the Cape today in preparation for launch in November.

Space station crew could be cut to five

August 21, 2016 Stephen Clark

Russia may start sending just two of its cosmonauts to the International Space Station at a time, according to media reports and comments by a NASA manager, in a cost-cutting measure that could reduce the size of the research lab’s crew to five.

Video: Preview of the OSIRIS-REx mission to sample an asteroid

August 21, 2016 Justin Ray

Watch the pre-flight news conference that introduces NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Sept. 8. It will capture a sample of Asteroid Bennu for return to Earth.

SpaceX puts historic flown rocket on permanent display

August 20, 2016 Stephen Clark

Crews outside the SpaceX’s headquarters in California on Saturday positioned the booster that stuck the first Falcon 9 rocket landing for vertical display, and now the launcher is an unmistakable Space Age trophy visible to passersby on nearby streets and freeways.