2016 – Page 57 – Spaceflight Now

OTD…May 18 and launch of Apollo 10

May 18, 2016 Justin Ray

As a dress rehearsal mission for the moon landing, Apollo 10 launched today in 1969 with Cernan, Young and Stafford

Japanese orbiter officially begins science mission at Venus

May 17, 2016 Stephen Clark

Five months since a belated arrival at Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has officially started a modified scientific survey of the sweltering, shrouded planet’s atmosphere and climate.

Rocketcam video released from Soyuz launch last month

May 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

The Russian space agency has posted an astounding video recorded by cameras fastened aboard a Soyuz rocket that took off from the country’s new Siberian spaceport last month.

OTD…Final launch of Endeavour five years ago

May 16, 2016 Justin Ray

Shuttle Endeavour launched for the 25th and final time on this date in 2011.

Orion capsule put under pressure in Florida

May 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

The skeleton of NASA’s next Orion capsule, set for launch in late 2018 on a test flight to lunar orbit without astronauts, has passed a pressurization test at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Chinese rocket lofts government surveillance satellite

May 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Long March 2D booster fired into space Sunday from a remote Chinese spaceport in the Gobi Desert, delivering a military spy satellite to a 400-mile-high perch in polar orbit.

Journey of shuttle fuel tank to California saves four people in Pacific

May 15, 2016 Justin Ray

Making a brief pit shop in San Diego to clear customs today, the museum-bound space shuttle external fuel tank will reach Los Angeles for offloading from the transport barge on Wednesday, just days after a serendipitous rescue of the passengers from a sunken boat in the Pacific.

OTD…May 15 and Faith 7

May 15, 2016 Justin Ray

The final manned Mercury mission was launched atop an Atlas rocket on this day in 1963 with Gordon Cooper aboard Faith 7 for a 34-hour, 22-orbit flight.

OTD…May 14 and Skylab

May 14, 2016 Justin Ray

NASA’s first space station — the Skylab orbital workshop — was launched atop a Saturn 5 rocket today, May 14, in 1973.

First astronaut flight on Boeing capsule slips to 2018

May 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

The first piloted test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule has been delayed to early 2018 as designers wrestle with the mass of the spacecraft, aerodynamic loads the vehicle will see during launch, and new software requirements levied by NASA, company officials said.