April 2017 – Page 8 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: SpaceX booster lands for second time on drone ship

April 4, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s reused Falcon 9 first stage booster returned to a landing on an ocean-going platform a few minutes after launching March 30 with the SES 10 communications satellite, then returned to Port Canaveral early Tuesday.

Musk previews busy year ahead for SpaceX

April 4, 2017 Stephen Clark

There’s a lot on SpaceX’s agenda this year if the company can maintain its pace, including refinements of the Falcon 9 rocket to hasten refurbishment between flights and the debut of the long-delayed Falcon Heavy launch vehicle with two side boosters recycled from previous missions, Elon Musk said after last week’s successful liftoff of a previously-flown rocket.

Photos: Cygnus spacecraft readied for launch to International Space Station

April 4, 2017 Justin Ray

These photographs span activities in March as the news media got an up-close viewing of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus cargo ship, its placement aboard a mobile transporter and delivery of the craft to the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket assembly building for hoisting and mating. Liftoff is scheduled for April 18.

NASA officials expect fewer Earth science missions in coming years

April 3, 2017 Stephen Clark

Expect fewer missions to study planet Earth in NASA’s future, agency officials told an advisory group last week. A blueprint of the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget would cancel four Earth science missions already in the agency’s portfolio and slash research funding geared toward future projects.

United Launch Alliance wins three U.S. government satellite launches

April 2, 2017 Justin Ray

The most powerful variants of the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets have been purchased by the Air Force to launch intelligence-gathering spacecraft for the U.S. government, and NASA has bought an Atlas 5 to deploy a critical polar-orbiting weather satellite.

Photos: SpaceX’s photos from Thursday’s reflight of Falcon 9 booster

April 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

Remote sound-triggered cameras around launch pad 39A captured stunning views of Thursday evening’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the first reflight of a commercial orbital-class booster.

Pioneering Earth observation satellite retired by NASA

April 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has decommissioned a long-lived satellite launched in 2000 that demonstrated remote sensing and surveying instruments and techniques common in today’s orbiting Earth observatories.

Falcon 9 / SES 10 post-launch press conference audio

April 1, 2017 Spaceflight Now

Listen as SpaceX and SES hold a post-launch press conference at the NASA Press Site at Kennedy Space Center to discuss the successful Falcon 9 launch of SES-10 to geostationary transfer orbit. The SES-10 mission was the world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket. (Membership required)