Mission Reports
Rocket Lab delivers seven payloads to orbit, plans next launch in December
Rocket Lab’s Electron booster launched six small satellites and a drag sail demonstrator to orbit Sunday from New Zealand, a success on the company’s first commercial mission that officials said should pave the way for a launch carrying NASA CubeSats next month and up to 16 flights of the light-class rocket next year.
Mission Reports
Kelly describes re-adaptation to gravity, life on Earth
Astronaut Scott Kelly, re-adapting to gravity, people and wide open spaces after a record 340 days cooped up aboard the International Space Station, said Friday his muscles and joints are a bit sore — “just about all of ’em” — his skin is surprisingly sensitive and “I never felt completely normal up there.”
Mission Reports
China launches two more Long March rockets; another possible before end of year
China’s space program is sprinting toward the end of the year by extending the country’s record-breaking launch rate, with two more space missions lifting off in the last week carrying a pathfinder for a planned constellation of Internet satellites and a mysterious payload heading for geostationary orbit. At least one more Long March rocket is set to lift off Saturday to close out 2018.