2016 – Page 20 – Spaceflight Now

Video: Soyuz rocket rolled to pad for Expedition 49 crew launch

October 16, 2016 Justin Ray

The Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft and booster rocket were rolled out to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday in preparation for liftoff Wednesday on a two-day trek to the International Space Station.

Faulty cable delays Antares launch 24 hours

October 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK launch managers have pushed back liftoff of an Antares rocket until Monday to replace a faulty cable on the booster’s launch pad in Virginia.

Live coverage: Chinese space capsule docks with Tiangong 2

October 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

Soaring more than 200 miles above Earth, a Chinese spacecraft with two astronauts on-board closed in for docking with the Tiangong 2 space lab just before 1930 GMT (3:30 p.m. EDT).

Chinese spacecraft poised for launch with two astronauts

October 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

China is gearing up to launch two astronauts on a month-long expedition to the country’s new orbiting space lab module Sunday.

Video: Antares/Cygnus pre-launch news conference

October 16, 2016 Justin Ray

Officials from NASA, Orbital ATK, Wallops Flight Facility and the Commonwealth of Virginia preview Sunday night’s flight of the Antares rocket during the pre-launch news conference held on the eve of liftoff.

Mission managers keeping Juno in elongated orbit until December

October 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

Ground teams are buying more time to study two sluggish valves inside the Juno spacecraft’s fuel pressurization system and postponing a major engine burn that was scheduled for next week to reshape the probe’s orbit around Jupiter, officials said Friday.

Photos: Antares rolls out for first time since 2014

October 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

An Antares rocket is being prepared for launch for the first time in two years after emerging from the Horizontal Integration Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, on Thursday evening for a one-mile trip to the launch pad.

Antares rocket raised on launch pad for station supply run

October 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

Engineers erected a commercial Antares rocket vertical on its launch pad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore Friday, positioning the 13-story booster for liftoff Sunday night with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station.

Orbital ATK books Proton rocket for first commercial satellite servicing mission

October 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

Armed with capital and an anchor customer for a trailblazing satellite life extension service, Orbital ATK has signed a contract to loft its first robotic servicing tug aboard a Russian Proton rocket in 2018 on a shared launch with a Eutelsat communications satellite.

NASA has no plans to buy more Soyuz seats, and it may be too late anyway

October 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA is sure enough that Boeing and SpaceX can safely launch astronauts to the International Space Station by early 2019 to hold off paying Russia to keep flying U.S. crews to the research complex, and one official says a deadline to order parts for new Russian Soyuz crew capsules may have already passed.