October 2018 – Page 4 – Spaceflight Now

Two satellites with secretive missions launched by China

October 12, 2018 Stephen Clark

Two Chinese Yaogan military reconnaissance satellites launched this week, riding a Long March 2C booster into orbit on a mission that inaugurated the use of a new restartable upper stage to increase the rocket’s carrying capacity.

Soyuz crew lands safely after emergency launch abort

October 11, 2018 William Harwood

A normally reliable Soyuz FG rocket malfunctioned two minutes after liftoff from Kazakhstan Thursday, forcing a Russian cosmonaut and his NASA crewmate to execute an emergency abort and a steep-but-safe return to Earth a few hundred miles from the launch site. Russian recovery crews reported the crew came through the ordeal in good shape.

Watch a replay of the Soyuz launch and abort

October 11, 2018 Spaceflight Now

Watch as Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague launch aboard a Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station but a Soyuz booster failure cut short their ascent into orbit.

Live coverage: Soyuz crew safe after emergency landing

October 10, 2018 Stephen Clark

Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague landed safely downrange in Kazakhstan on Thursday after a Soyuz booster failure cut short their ascent into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome toward the International Space Station. The emergency landing was the first Soyuz in-flight abort since 1975.

Russians plan Thursday launch of two to space station

October 10, 2018 William Harwood

One week after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft departed the International Space Station and brought three crew members back to Earth, another Soyuz carrying a veteran cosmonaut and a first-time NASA flight engineer is ready for launch Thursday on a quick four-orbit flight to the orbiting lab complex.

Photos: Soyuz transferred to Baikonur launch pad

October 10, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket poised to send two new crew members to the International Space Station rolled to its launch pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Hubble Space Telescope in safe mode with gyro trouble

October 9, 2018 William Harwood

NASA has suspended science operations with the Hubble Space Telescope and put the observatory into protective “safe mode” while engineers troubleshoot problems with one of the spacecraft’s three remaining gyroscopes, used to help aim the telescope and keep it locked on target, officials said Monday.

SpaceX aces first rocket landing in California after launching Argentine satellite

October 8, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket launching an Argentine Earth-observing satellite streaked across the skies of Southern California on Sunday night, then its booster stage returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base for an on-target landing, the first by SpaceX on the West Coast.

Photos: Falcon 9 rocket, landing pad ready for action at Vandenberg

October 7, 2018 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was raised vertical at Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sunday ahead of a planned liftoff with Argentina’s SAOCOM 1A radar observation satellite, and the first landing of a SpaceX booster on the U.S. West Coast.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches Argentine satellite, lands rocket in California

October 7, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday at 7:21 p.m. PDT (10:21 p.m. EDT; 0221 GMT Monday) with SAOCOM 1A, a radar observation satellite for Argentina, then returned the booster to a landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for the first time.