January 2017 – Spaceflight Now

Cassini offers best-ever view of Saturn’s rings

January 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

A sequence of images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last month are the most detailed pictures ever taken of Saturn’s famous rings, revealing complex, unexplained bands and the movements of dozens of tiny icy moonlets spinning around the planet.

Intelsat satellite in service after overcoming engine trouble

January 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

An Intelsat communications satellite launched last August entered service Sunday, about three months later than planned after a main engine problem forced engineers to position the craft in geostationary orbit using backup low-thrust rocket jets.

Station cargo flight leapfrogs commercial satellite launch on SpaceX manifest

January 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX said Sunday that the first Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 39A, a former shuttle-era complex at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is scheduled to send a Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station in mid-February, deferring a mission with an EchoStar communications satellite that was set to take off this month.

Photos: Soyuz rocket climbs away from South American launch pad

January 28, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket took off from French Guiana on Friday with Hispasat 36W-1, a communications satellite designed to connect Latin America and Europe with video, data and cellular phone services.

Video: 31 years since Challenger tragedy

January 28, 2017 Justin Ray

President Reagan addressed the nation with this speech 31 years ago today, following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and crew on Jan. 28, 1986.

Soyuz rocket supplies sendoff for multi-national telecom payload

January 28, 2017 Stephen Clark

Launching from the edge of the Amazon jungle in South America, a Russian-built Soyuz booster fired into orbit Friday night with a Spanish-owned communications satellite built in Germany to test new commercial telecom technologies and provide video, voice and data relay services.

Video: Soyuz rocket blasts off with German-made, Spanish-owned satellite

January 28, 2017 Stephen Clark

Watch a video replay of Friday night’s blastoff of a Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center with Hispasat 36W-1, a communications satellite developed by OHB in Germany for Spain’s Hispasat to test out new telecom technologies and provide data networking, video and broadband services over South America and Europe.

Apollo 1 tragedy remembered 50 years later

January 27, 2017 William Harwood

With the first Apollo launch less than a month away, America’s race to the moon was in high gear. The three-man crew of the first Apollo test flight — commander Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee — strapped into the cockpit of their spacecraft on Jan. 27, 1967 — 50 years ago Friday — for a dress-rehearsal countdown.

Video: Apollo 1 tribute opens at the Kennedy Space Center

January 27, 2017 Spaceflight Now

On the 50th anniversary of the launch pad fire that killed the Apollo 1 astronauts, an immersive exhibit area paying tribute to the three men has opened at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Saturn V Center.

Live coverage: Arianespace declares success on first flight of the year

January 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off Friday night from a tropical spaceport in French Guiana with a commercial communications satellite setting off on a dual mission to demonstrate new space technologies and bridge the Atlantic with data, video and voice relays. Launch occurred at 0103:34 GMT Saturday (8:03:34 p.m. EST Friday).