May 2023 – Page 4 – Spaceflight Now

Chinese cargo ship launches to resupply space station

May 10, 2023 Stephen Clark

China’s space station received delivery of fresh supplies, experiments, and fuel after the launch of the Tianzhou 6 cargo ship Wednesday aboard a Long March 7 rocket.

Electron rocket launches pair of cyclone-tracking CubeSats for NASA

May 8, 2023 Clive Simpson

The first pair of four NASA CubeSats designed to provide frequent updates of typhoon and hurricane development for new insights into how tropical storms evolve and intensify were launched by Rocket Lab from its New Zealand spaceport on Sunday.

Start of construction paves way for first UK mainland vertical launch

May 8, 2023 Clive Simpson

Rocket and launch services company Orbex has begun construction at Sutherland Spaceport in Scotland with a ground-breaking ceremony on May 5 that marked the start of the first vertical launch spaceport to be built on mainland UK.

Twin TROPICS satellites set to be lofted into orbit

May 5, 2023 Clive Simpson

Rocket Lab’s launch of NASA’s second pair of TROPICS hurricane research satellites, reassigned from Astra following a launch failure last year, has been rescheduled for Sunday after a delay due to unfavorable weather at the the company’s New Zealand spaceport.

SpaceX rockets past 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit with another launch

May 4, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX surpassed more than 4,000 Starlink internet satellites in orbit with the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and another batch of 56 spacecraft Thursday from Cape Canaveral, the company’s fourth mission in less than a week.

Russian cosmonauts complete spacewalk to relocate experiment airlock

May 3, 2023 William Harwood

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday, unbolted an experiment airlock from the Rassvet docking compartment and then connected it to Russia’s Nauka multi-purpose laboratory module in a 7-hour, 11-minute excursion.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy hits bullseye with ascent to near-geosynchronous orbit

May 1, 2023 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket thundered into the sky over Florida’s Space Coast Sunday night and deployed a sophisticated internet satellite for Viasat into a circular orbit more than 20,000 miles over the equator, delivering for a competitor to SpaceX’s own Starlink broadband network.