2016 – Page 76 – Spaceflight Now

Crew leave space station after 340-day mission

March 2, 2016 Spaceflight Now

Watch as the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft separates from the Space Station, setting the stage for the return to Earth of astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who both spent 340 days in space. The Soyuz is commanded by Sergey Volkov who joined the station crew in September.

Scott Kelly and crewmates bid goodbye to space station

March 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

In the final hours of a 340-day mission, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko said goodbye to their crewmates and closed the hatch to the International Space Station on Tuesday, heading for a parachute-assisted touchdown in Kazakhstan a few hours later.

Watch another view of the Falcon 9’s last-second abort

March 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket got within a second of liftoff Sunday before a low-thrust alarm triggered an automatic abort. Watch a view of the dramatic last-second countdown cutoff at engine ignition from our camera at the launch pad.

STS 41-B Post-Flight Presentation

March 1, 2016 Spaceflight Now

The crew of Space Shuttle mission STS 41-B provide an overview of their mission. Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center on February 3, 1984, and although the flight was marred by the failure of two commercial satellite deployments, astronaut Bruce McCandless made history by making the first untethered spacewalk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit jet pack.

Photos: Sun sets on Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral

March 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Check out photos of a picturesque sunset at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, where a Falcon 9 rocket is poised for liftoff with a commercial broadcasting satellite for Luxembourg-based SES.

Live coverage: Station crew lands after 11 months in orbit

March 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Touching down after 340 days in orbit, astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko have returned to Earth from the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz crew capsule commanded by Sergey Volkov. Landing in Kazakhstan occurred at 0426 GMT Wednesday (11:26 p.m. EST Tuesday).

With Russian launch grounded, Iridium flips order of satellite deployments

February 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Stymied by Russian government dithering that has indefinitely grounded a launch on a modified Soviet-era missile, Iridium officials say that SpaceX agreed to move up to July the first of seven Falcon 9 launches from California with the company’s next-generation mobile communications satellites.

Q&A with Kurt Eberly, Orbital ATK’s Antares deputy program manager

February 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Kurt Eberly, who helps lead the Antares rocket program at Orbital ATK, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the launcher’s return-to-flight with newly-built engines later this year.

Shannon Lucid gives a guided tour of the Mir space station

February 29, 2016 Spaceflight Now

NASA Astronaut Shannon Lucid spent six months aboard the Mir Space Station in 1996. In this video she gives a guided tour of the Russian space outpost.

Kelly, Kornienko about to wrap up 340-day mission

February 29, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are making final preparations for return to Earth Tuesday evening, closing out a record 340-day stay aboard the International Space Station where they served as medical test subjects to learn more about the long-term effects of weightlessness, space radiation and isolation.