November 2017 – Spaceflight Now

Guidance error reportedly led to Russian launch failure

November 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

Russian officials could complete their investigation of a rocket failure Tuesday by mid-December, and multiple Russian news reports suggest the probe has narrowed to focus on the guidance computer on the Soyuz launcher’s Fregat upper stage.

NASA agrees to launch station supplies on reused SpaceX rocket

November 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX will launch a space station-bound cargo ship with nearly 2.5 tons of supplies and experiments next Friday, Dec. 8, with a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket booster after winning NASA approval for the reuse plan, agency officials said Wednesday.

Debut of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket now planned early next year

November 28, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket is expected to roll out to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the first time next month for a hold-down firing of its 27 Merlin main engines, but the mega-rocket’s inaugural test launch will slip into January, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Russian weather satellite and 18 secondary payloads lost after rocket failure

November 28, 2017 Stephen Clark

A new Russian weather observatory and the first prototype for Telesat’s planned network of 100-plus broadband communications satellites in low Earth orbit were among 19 spacecraft feared lost after a Fregat rocket stage ran into trouble soon after liftoff aboard a Soyuz booster Tuesday.

Space station cargo flight next on SpaceX’s launch schedule

November 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

In a reshuffling of SpaceX’s launch schedule, a Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff no earlier than Dec. 8 on a mission to deliver several tons of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station and return to service a Cape Canaveral launch pad damaged in a catastrophic rocket explosion last year.

Soyuz rocket set for launch from Russia’s new cosmodrome

November 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from a launch pad in Russia’s Far East with a new Russian weather satellite and 18 secondary payloads from companies and institutions in the United States, Canada, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Germany.

Three Chinese military surveillance satellites successfully launched

November 26, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Chinese rocket placed three experimental military surveillance satellites in orbit Friday, the second set of related triplets launched in less than two months.

Cassini’s farewell to Saturn

November 26, 2017 Stephen Clark

Two days before its final plunge into Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft turned its camera toward the ringed world to take a series of images for a color mosaic, capturing a last evocative close-up until a new mission reaches the planet.

Scientists suggest streaks on Martian hillsides are dry flows

November 26, 2017 Stephen Clark

Intermittent flows that appear on steep slopes on Mars are likely formed by flowing sand, and not water as some scientists previously suspected, according to a new study.

An interstellar interloper is dashing through our solar system

November 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

Astronomers say an object observed speeding through our solar system last month has an unexpected cigar-like shape and originated from another star, making it the first confirmed interstellar asteroid.