2020 – Page 67 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon delivered to Cape Canaveral for first flight with astronauts

February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon capsule was delivered to Cape Canaveral this week from a California factory for a liftoff as soon as this spring with veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a test flight to the International Space Station, officials announced Friday.

SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 rocket; Starlink launch delayed to Monday

February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX test-fired its next Falcon 9 rocket Friday ahead of a planned launch Monday from Cape Canaveral with 60 more Starlink Internet satellites, days after an international group sounded another warning about the effects of large satellite fleets on astronomy.

Mars 2020 rover arrives at Kennedy Space Center for July launch

February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

Two U.S. Air Force cargo planes delivered the Mars 2020 rover, cruise stage, descent module and the Mars Helicopter to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week for final assembly, fueling and mounting atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in preparation for liftoff in July.

Watch the static test firing of a Falcon 9 prior to the fifth Starlink launch (members only)

February 14, 2020 Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket ignites its nine Merlin first stage engines on Feb. 14 in a routine pre-launch test firing prior to its planned launch with the fifth batch of Starlink broadband satellites.

Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship arrives at space station

February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

Two-and-a-half days after launch from Virginia, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Tuesday with nearly 7,500 pounds of cargo. Capture with the station’s robotic arm occurred at 4:05 a.m. EST (0905 GMT).

Photos: Atlas 5 lifts off with Solar Orbiter

February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

Take a look back at the Feb. 9 launch of a 189-foot-tall (57.6-meter) Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying the European-built Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

Watch a live view of the Falcon 9 launch pad (members only)

February 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where SpaceX is preparing a Falcon 9 rocket for a hold-down engine test-firing and launch with the company’s fifth batch of Starlink broadband satellites.

NASA to assess proposals for probes to Venus, moons of Jupiter and Neptune

February 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Thursday it will fund four concept studies for potential robotic missions to Venus, Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton ahead of a decision next year to approve up to two of the projects for launch in the mid-to-late 2020s.

Discoveries at solar system’s distant frontier shed light on how planets form

February 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

Data from the encounter of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft with a frozen reddish snowman-shaped object a billion miles beyond Pluto last year suggest the building blocks of planets may have formed less violently than many scientists expected, officials said Thursday.

Japanese companies agree to buy Spaceflight rideshare launch broker

February 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Industries said this week it is selling its rideshare launch business — known as Spaceflight — to a joint venture formed by two Japanese companies.