January 2019 – Page 4 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX begins 2019 with eighth and final launch for upgraded Iridium network

January 11, 2019 Stephen Clark

Ten Iridium communications satellites rode a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Friday from California in the eighth and final launch for Iridium’s upgraded network over the last two years, and the first of around 18 predicted SpaceX missions planned in 2019.

Launch timeline for SpaceX’s eighth mission for Iridium

January 11, 2019 Stephen Clark

Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit with the another set of 10 next-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay fleet.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches first Falcon 9 mission of the year

January 11, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX kicked off its 2019 launch campaign with a mission Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying 10 more upgraded communications satellites into orbit to complete a refresh of Iridium’s voice and data relay network. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 7:31 a.m. PST (10:31 a.m. EST; 1531 GMT).

China begins 2019 launch campaign with a success

January 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

A Chinese communications satellite heading for geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator lifted off Thursday from the Xichang space base in southwestern China aboard a Long March 3B rocket on the first space launch of 2019.

Iridium eager to complete upgraded network with Falcon 9 launch Friday

January 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch of 10 more upgraded spacecraft aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday will complete the build-out of Iridium’s modernized $3 billion global communications network, setting up for the debut of new broadband and aircraft tracking services in the coming months.

Controllers troubleshoot problem with Hubble camera

January 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

The partial shutdown of the U.S. government could complicate efforts to troubleshoot a suspected hardware problem with the Hubble Space Telescope’s premier science instrument, but officials are optimistic the camera will eventually be restored to operations, the head of the observatory’s science operations team said Wednesday.

Astronomers announce first exoplanets discovered by NASA’s TESS mission

January 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Six months into its mission scanning the sky for planets around other stars, NASA’s orbiting TESS observatory has found three previously-undiscovered worlds and hundreds more exoplanet candidates, the first batch of a potential haul of up to 10,000 exoplanet detections over TESS’s planned two-year mission, astronomers announced this week.

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellite fails

January 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 commercial Earth observation satellite, which launched in 2016 for a planned 10-to-12-year mission, has suffered a failure in its control moment gyros and is no longer able to acquire high-resolution imagery, officials announced Monday.

SpaceX about one month away from first commercial crew test flight

January 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said this weekend that the company is about one month away from launching the first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, a precursor to a demonstration launch with astronauts later this year. He also warned that early test flights of the commercial crew capsule, built under contract to NASA, will be “especially dangerous.”

Time-lapse: The Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon roll to the launch pad (members only)

January 7, 2019 Spaceflight Now

In this time-lapse video, the Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon atop rolls to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time on January 3. The rocket was then lifted vertical for a series of fit checks and tests.