October 2020 – Page 6 – Spaceflight Now

Juno team planning close flybys of Jupiter’s moons

October 12, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Juno spacecraft could perform the first close flybys since the early 2000s of three of Jupiter’s largest moons, including Europa, if the space agency grants the mission an extension, Juno’s lead scientist said recently.

SpaceX crew launch delayed to assess Merlin engine concern

October 10, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA said Saturday that the launch of four astronauts on SpaceX’s first operational Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station has been delayed from Oct. 31 until “no sooner than early-to-mid November,” allowing time for SpaceX to resolve an issue with Falcon 9 rocket engines that halted a recent launch attempt with a GPS navigation satellite.

Radar imagery released from Capella’s Sequoia satellite

October 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

Capella Space has released the first images from its Sequoia radar remote sensing spacecraft, a commercial imaging platform that launched in August as the first of a constellation that could number 36 radar observation satellites.

Crucial first fueling test on tap for SLS core stage later this month

October 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

If all goes according to plan, engineers in southern Mississippi later this month will load cryogenic propellants into the core stage of a rocket NASA says will launch astronauts back to the moon, exposing its tankage and internal plumbing to extreme operating conditions hundreds of degrees below zero for the first time. The fueling test — a major milestone in its own right — is a precursor to a high-stakes eight-minute test-firing of the Space Launch System’s four shuttle-era main engines planned as soon as November.

Photos: Antares blasts off from Virginia

October 8, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Northrop Grumman Antares launched from Virginia’s Eastern Shore with a commercial Cygnus supply ship Oct. 2 on a two-and-a-half day journey to the International Space Station.

JWST completes tests to simulate rigors of launch

October 7, 2020 Stephen Clark

The fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope has completed testing in Southern California to verify the $10 billion mission can withstand the sound and shaking it will see during launch scheduled late next year on a European Ariane 5 rocket.

Commander of first piloted Starliner test flight steps down from mission

October 7, 2020 William Harwood

Christopher Ferguson, commander of the final space shuttle flight and now a Boeing executive, has stepped down as commander of the first piloted test flight of the company’s troubled CST-100 Starliner commercial spacecraft, he and Boeing announced Wednesday. He has been replaced by NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

China’s Mars-bound probe returns self-portrait from deep space

October 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

China’s space agency has released images captured by a small camera ejected from the country’s first Mars-bound spacecraft, showing the probe in deep space as it nears the halfway point of its seven-month journey from Earth to the Red Planet.

SpaceX breaks cycle of scrubs with successful Falcon 9 launch

October 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

Sixty more SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites rocketed into orbit Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center, breaking a streak canceled launch attempts at the Florida spaceport in recent weeks and nudging the Starlink network closer to reaching a wider population.

Watch 4K video of Falcon 9 launching Starlink satellites (members only)

October 6, 2020 Spaceflight Now

Watch 4K video of a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center soon after sunrise on Oct. 6, 2020, carrying 60 more Starlink satellites.