June 2017 – Page 8 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX rocket again set for station delivery after scientists swap mice, fruit flies

June 3, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket is again standing upright on launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after ground teams lowered the booster Friday to swap out mice heading to the International Space Station for medical experiments.

Time-lapse video: Falcon 9 positioned for 2nd launch attempt

June 3, 2017 Spaceflight Now

Watch a time-lapse video of the Falcon 9 rocket being lifted upright at launch complex 39A in readiness for another launch attempt on a commercial space station resupply mission.

Video: Replay of Soyuz MS-03 crew landing in Kazakhstan

June 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

Watch a replay of the landing of Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet inside the Soyuz MS-03 crew capsule on the Kazakh stepped Friday, ending their six-and-a-half month expedition on the International Space Station.

Soyuz with two-man crew lands safely in Kazakhstan

June 2, 2017 William Harwood

Leaving crewmate Peggy Whitson behind in orbit for an extended mission, a Russian cosmonaut and his French co-pilot undocked from the International Space Station early Friday and plunged back to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 196-day mission.

Ariane 5 succeeds in launch of two high-value communications satellites

June 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

A pair of ViaSat and Eutelsat communications satellites — one to broadcast unparalleled high-speed Internet from space, and another to connect the Asia-Pacific — streaked into space Thursday from French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket, setting records for the heaviest and most valuable commercial payload ever put into orbit.

Live coverage: Two-man crew departs space station, returns home

June 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

Two crewmen returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Friday, riding a Russian Soyuz spaceship to a parachute-assisted, rocket-cushioned landing in Kazakhstan to close out more than 196 days in orbit. Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet undocked from the station at 1047 GMT (6:47 a.m. EDT) and landed in Kazakhstan at 1410 GMT (10:10 a.m. EDT).

Lightning near launch pad scrubs liftoff of SpaceX supply ship

June 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

Stormy weather near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center kept SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on the ground Thursday, delaying liftoff of a commercial supply ship with equipment and experiments for the International Space Station until Saturday.

Black holes crash together and make waves

June 1, 2017 William Harwood

Three billion years ago, in a third of a second, two black holes crashed into each other and merged into a single entity, converting two solar masses into energy that shook the fabric of spacetime, sending gravitational ripples across the universe that were detected on Earth last January, researchers announced Thursday.

Launch timeline for Ariane 5’s flight with ViaSat 2 and Eutelsat 172B

June 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket will fire into the sky from French Guiana Thursday evening and deliver a record heavyweight payload to orbit less than an hour later.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 rocket launches on record-breaking mission

June 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket lifted off Thursday at 2345 GMT (7:45 p.m. EDT), flying from a French Guiana launch pad to geostationary transfer orbit with the ViaSat 2 and Eutelsat 172B communications satellites.