2016 – Page 53 – Spaceflight Now

Elon Musk hopes SpaceX will send humans to Mars in 2024

June 2, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s plan to send a Dragon capsule to Mars in 2018 will be the first in a sequence of unmanned commercial missions to the rust-colored world before the first voyage with humans as soon as 2024, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Wednesday.

Upcoming Delta 4-Heavy launch back on track after payload-related delay

June 2, 2016 Justin Ray

A new launch date has been established — June 9 — for the Delta 4-Heavy rocket to carry a classified satellite into space for U.S. national security needs.

Record double-satellite payload mated to Ariane 5 for launch next week

June 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

A new communications satellite to beam television channels to millions of DISH Network subscribers in the United States and the first spacecraft dedicated to support banking services have been attached to an Ariane 5 rocket for liftoff June 8 from French Guiana.

Long March 4B lofts Earth-viewing satellites for China, Argentina

May 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

Three Earth observation satellites for the Chinese government and a commercial Argentine startup launched Monday, entering an orbit 300 miles above Earth to begin mapping missions.

Re-engined Antares rocket completes ground test firing

May 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK’s upgraded Antares rocket, featuring newly-built RD-181 main engines, completed a 30-second test firing on a launch pad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Tuesday.

Russia’s navigation network receives new satellite

May 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Glonass navigation satellite blasted off Sunday aboard a Soyuz rocket, reaching an orbit nearly 12,000 miles above Earth to join Russia’s fleet of positioning, navigation and timing spacecraft.

Ride aboard the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on descent

May 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a virtual trip from space back to planet Earth with an sped up video clip showing the eye-popping on-board views from the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster as it plummeted back to Earth, opened aerodynamic steering fins and fired its engines for a final braking maneuver just before touchdown.

Video: Next space station trio finishing training at Star City

May 28, 2016 Justin Ray

Soyuz commander Anatoly Ivanishin and flight engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of JAXA conduct final qualification training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center for their flight to the International Space Station in June.

SpaceX logs successful late afternoon launch for Thaicom

May 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral and climbed into space Friday, propelling a Thai television relay satellite into orbit and achieving its third dramatic ocean landing in a row, adding to SpaceX’s growing inventory of recovered rocket boosters.

Details of Orbital ATK’s proposed heavy launcher revealed

May 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

The launch vehicle Orbital ATK wants to face off against SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for lucrative U.S. military contracts would be made of two internally-built solid rocket motors and an upper stage engine supplied by Blue Origin, the entrepreneurial space firm led by Jeff Bezos, an Orbital ATK official said this week.