June 2019 – Page 6 – Spaceflight Now

Final ‘single stick’ Delta 4-Medium rocket arrives at Florida launch pad

June 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

Ground crews finished the initial build-up of the last “single stick” medium-lift variant of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 rocket on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral last week in preparation for liftoff with a GPS navigation satellite July 25.

NASA unveils plans to commercialize low Earth orbit

June 7, 2019 William Harwood

NASA unveiled an ambitious program Friday to commercialize low-Earth orbit, making way for product development and even advertising aboard the International Space Station, month-long visits by company astronauts starting as early as next year and use of a station docking port for privately financed research-and-development modules.

Japanese probe readies for another possible touch-and-go on asteroid

June 6, 2019 Stephen Clark

Approaching the one-year anniversary since its arrival at asteroid Ryugu, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has deployed a target marker near an artificial crater created by an explosive charge in April, a guide post that could help the probe steer toward another pinpoint touchdown to collect a second batch of samples for return to Earth.

Scientists call on InSight’s robotic arm to assist stalled heat probe on Mars

June 6, 2019 Stephen Clark

Later this month, ground teams will send commands for the InSight lander on Mars to use its robotic arm in a series of carefully-choreographed movements to help inspect, and potentially assist, one of the mission’s main geologic instruments that stalled as it hammered into the Red Planet’s crust earlier this year.

China’s first sea launch declared a success

June 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled Long March 11 rocket fired out of a container aboard a barge in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday with seven satellites heading into orbit on China’s first space launch from an ocean vessel.

NASA picks three companies to send commercial landers to the moon

June 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon.

Dragon capsule returns to Earth from space station with 2.1 tons of cargo

June 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

Closing out a 30-day mission, a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule departed the International Space Station on Monday for a fiery trip back to Earth, culminating in re-entry back into the atmosphere and a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles.

Photos: Proton blasts off with Yamal 601

June 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

Look back on the May 30 launch of a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with this gallery of photos showing the 19-story launcher climbing into the sky with the Yamal 601 communications satellite.

Live coverage: Dragon cargo capsule returns to Earth

June 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

A commercial Dragon cargo capsule wrapped up a four-week stay at the International Space Station on Monday with a departure from the complex at 12:01 p.m. EDT (1601 GMT). The spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 5:48 p.m. EDT (2148 GMT) with several tons of research specimens and equipment.