April 2019 – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

Carbon-monitoring instrument poised for launch to International Space Station

April 25, 2019 Stephen Clark

A $110 million NASA science instrument twice targeted for cancellation by the Trump administration is set for launch Tuesday inside the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule for delivery to the International Space Station, where it will spend three years charting changing carbon dioxide concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere.

Few details available in early days of SpaceX accident investigation

April 25, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA and SpaceX officials have said little this week about the apparent explosion of a Crew Dragon capsule Saturday during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, and members of a safety advisory panel said Thursday they will be patient as investigators review high-speed imagery, telemetry data and wreckage to determine the cause of the accident.

InSight lander detects first likely ‘quake’ on Mars

April 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

Sensors delivered to Mars by NASA’s InSight lander have detected the first signals suggesting seismic activity on the red planet, a major discovery that extends the field of seismology to a new world beyond the Earth and the moon.

Photos: Antares rocket blasts off from Virginia

April 23, 2019 Stephen Clark

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launch April 17 from Virginia’s Eastern Shore marked the start of the 11th Cygnus resupply mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceX likely to move next rocket landing to drone ship

April 23, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is likely to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket set for launch April 30 on a drone ship just off the coast of Cape Canaveral, not at the company’s onshore recovery site as originally planned, after a ground test of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule at the landing pad ended in an explosion Saturday.

Intelsat declares drifting satellite total loss

April 22, 2019 Stephen Clark

Intelsat has declared the Intelsat 29e communications satellite a total loss after the Boeing-built spacecraft suffered a fuel leak and shed debris in geostationary orbit, three years into a planned 15-year mission.

Beidou navigation satellite successfully launched by China

April 22, 2019 Stephen Clark

Another satellite to join the China’s independent global navigation network successfully launched Saturday from the mountainous Xichang spaceport in the southwest of the country.

SpaceX confirms anomaly during Crew Dragon abort engine test

April 20, 2019 Stephen Clark

An accident Saturday during an abort engine test on a Crew Dragon test vehicle at Cape Canaveral sent a reddish-orange plume into the sky visible for miles around, a setback for SpaceX and NASA as teams prepare the capsule for its first mission with astronauts.

Cygnus supply ship delivers 3.8-ton cargo load to International Space Station

April 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA flight engineer Anne McClain grappled Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship with the International Space Station’s robotic arm Friday, marking the automated cargo freighter’s arrival after an abbreviated day-and-a-half-long journey from a launch pad in Virginia with nearly 7,600 pounds of experiments, food and provisions.

Errant command doomed Israeli moon lander, officials vow to try again

April 18, 2019 Stephen Clark

A command uplinked by mission control to resolve an error in the guidance system on the Israeli Beresheet moon lander inadvertently triggered a chain reaction that led to the shutdown of the probe’s main engine during descent to the lunar surface April 11, officials said this week.