William Harwood – Page 40 – Spaceflight Now

Spacewalk concludes with successful robot arm repair

October 5, 2017 William Harwood

Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station early Thursday and performed what amounted to hand transplant surgery on the lab’s Canadian-built robot arm, removing a crippled grapple fixture on one end of the space crane and replacing it with an on-board spare.

Pence calls for a return to the moon as a stepping stone to Mars

October 5, 2017 William Harwood

Vice President Mike Pence, chairing a revived National Space Council, said Thursday the United States will once again send astronauts to the moon, using Earth’s satellite as a critical stepping stone for eventual flights to Mars, and vowing to beef up national security space assets to counter rapidly escalating threats from adversaries.

Elon Musk revises Mars plan, hopes for boots on ground in 2024

September 29, 2017 William Harwood

SpaceX plans to begin construction of a new rocket and spacecraft next year that could lead to human landings on Mars as early as 2024, scaling up technologies currently being perfected with the company’s Falcon 9 family of boosters to ensure reliability, reusability and, as a result, realistically low costs, founder Elon Musk said Friday.

Cassini crashes into Saturn, ending 20-year mission

September 15, 2017 William Harwood

Dutifully beaming back data to the very end, NASA’s long-lived Cassini probe slammed into Saturn’s atmosphere at some 77,000 mph Friday, blazing like a shooting star as it was ripped apart and incinerated in the final chapter of an enormously successful mission.

Cassini races toward fiery mission-ending plunge into Saturn

September 14, 2017 William Harwood

Thirteen years after reaching Saturn, NASA’s nuclear-powered Cassini spacecraft raced through its 294th and final orbit Thursday, collecting priceless data while hurtling toward a kamikaze-like plunge into the ringed planet’s atmosphere Friday, going out in a blaze of glory to wrap up an “insanely” successful mission.

Soyuz docks with space station, adding three to lab’s crew

September 13, 2017 William Harwood

Lighting up the pre-dawn sky, a Soyuz rocket roared to life and streaked into orbit Tuesday carrying a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, boosting the lab’s crew back to six and the U.S. complement to four NASA-sponsored astronauts.

Kennedy Space Center braces for Hurricane Irma

September 7, 2017 William Harwood

With an eye on fast-moving Hurricane Irma, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Thursday while NASA and contractor personnel rushed to prepare the sprawling spaceport for extreme winds, torrential rain and a threatening storm surge.

Soyuz brings Whitson home after record-setting mission

September 3, 2017 William Harwood

Wrapping up a record-setting flight, Peggy Whitson, America’s most experienced astronaut with nearly two years of time in orbit across three missions, returned to Earth Saturday after a 288-day stay aboard the International Space Station, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan with Soyuz MS-04 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Jack Fischer.

NASA’s most experienced astronaut set for return to Earth

September 2, 2017 William Harwood

Peggy Whitson, America’s most experienced astronaut with nearly two years in orbit over three missions, returns to Earth Saturday after an extended 288-day stay aboard the International Space Station, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan with Soyuz MS-04 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA flight engineer Jack Fischer.

NASA flight controllers shelter in place during storm

August 27, 2017 William Harwood

Flight controllers and other essential personnel at NASA’s Johnson Space Center just south of Houston are sheltering in place, maintaining contact with the International Space Station during torrential rain and flooding across south Texas from the slow-moving remnants of Hurricane Harvey.