September 2018 – Page 4 – Spaceflight Now

JAXA postpones station cargo launch as typhoon threatens Guam tracking site

September 9, 2018 Stephen Clark

A typhoon forecast to move near a ground station in Guam on Monday has forced officials to postpone the launch of a Japanese HTV cargo ship loaded with more than 13,000 pounds of supplies, experiments and a replacement set of batteries for the International Space Station.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 lifts off after weather delay

September 9, 2018 Stephen Clark

A high-throughput communications satellite developed as a joint venture between Telesat and APT Satellite lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) Monday from Cape Canaveral, following a delay to wait for storms to clear the Florida spaceport.

Dwindling fuel levels and a balky thruster can’t keep Kepler down

September 7, 2018 Stephen Clark

After downloading science data and bypassing a balky thruster, NASA’s Kepler mission has resumed its search for planets around other stars after a two-month pause in observations, but engineers expect the spacecraft to soon run out of fuel.

Air Force releases new target dates for upcoming military launches

September 7, 2018 Stephen Clark

Managers have pushed back the next flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket from a launch pad in California until no sooner than early December, and the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy for the U.S. Air Force has likely been delayed to some time early next year, officials said this week.

Watch live: SLS launch platform rolls to the VAB (members only)

September 7, 2018 Spaceflight Now

Watch as NASA rolls the SLS mobile launch platform from launch pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX launch delayed to Sunday night

September 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

A commercial communications satellite set for launch from Florida’s Space Coast on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to beam broadband and television signals across the Asia-Pacific region will remain on Earth until at least Sunday night, 24 hours later than previously scheduled.

Hayabusa 2 team sets dates for asteroid landings

September 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is preparing to release three hopping robots to land on asteroid Ryugu in the coming month, with tiny instruments scientists hope will explore the airless world’s boulder-strewn landscape and return the first images from the surface of an asteroid.

SpaceX conducts engine test fire for communications satellite launch (members only)

September 6, 2018 Spaceflight Now

SpaceX test fires a Falcon 9 rocket in readiness for its planned 8 September 2018 launch carrying the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite.

Hotfire test keeps SpaceX on schedule for weekend launch

September 5, 2018 Stephen Clark

A brief test-firing of a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday morning kept SpaceX on track for a launch Saturday night from Cape Canaveral with a communications satellite to be jointly used by Telesat and APT Satellite of Hong Kong.

Russians investigate cause of Soyuz leak, focus on human error

September 4, 2018 William Harwood

Ruling out a strike by space debris or a micrometeoroid, Russian engineers say a small now-plugged leak in a Soyuz crew ferry ship docked to the International Space Station was the result of a hole drilled into the wall of the spacecraft’s upper compartment, an apparent case of human error.