William Harwood – Page 47 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz MS-01 launch-to-docking timeline

July 6, 2016 William Harwood

Track the progress of the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft and its three-person crew through Wednesday’s countdown and launch, followed two days later by docking with the International Space Station on Friday.

Upgraded Soyuz prepped to carry three to space station

July 5, 2016 William Harwood

A veteran cosmonaut, a former Japanese 767 airline pilot and a NASA astronaut with a Ph.D. in cancer biology are making final preparations for launch July 6 on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. It will be the first flight in an upgraded Soyuz ferry craft with improved, more redundant navigation, communications and computer equipment.

One last task for doomed cargo ship

June 22, 2016 William Harwood

With one last task to carry out, a space station Cygnus cargo ship loaded with trash and no-longer-needed equipment fell back to Earth Wednesday, hitting the discernible atmosphere 60 miles or so above the Pacific Ocean at nearly 5 miles per second.

Soyuz spacecraft brings home three-man station crew

June 18, 2016 William Harwood

A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and a British flier strapped into a Soyuz spacecraft, undocked from International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Saturday, safely landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 186-day mission.

Three station fliers set for Saturday return to Earth

June 17, 2016 William Harwood

Three space station crew members made final preparations Friday for undocking and landing in Kazakhstan early Saturday to close out a 186-day stay in orbit.

Kepler adds 1,284 exoplanets to its total

May 10, 2016 William Harwood

A statistical analysis of data collected by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope during its initial mission shows a better than 99 percent chance that 1,284 worlds previously classified as “candidates” are, in fact, actual planets, researchers said Tuesday.

Russian billionaire devotes $100 million to star flight initiative

April 13, 2016 William Harwood

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner plans to spend $100 million over the next few years to begin developing the technology needed to build a giant laser array to propel swarms of postage stamp-size spacecraft off on 20-year-long interstellar flights to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun, the internet investor announced Tuesday.

Blue Origin launches same New Shepard spacecraft for third time

April 3, 2016 William Harwood

Blue Origin launched its reusable New Shepard suborbital spacecraft on its third test flight Saturday, successfully boosting an unpiloted capsule out of the discernible atmosphere for a few minutes of weightlessness before a parachute descent to the company’s West Texas launch site.

Soyuz docks with space station with fresh crew

March 19, 2016 William Harwood

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a veteran NASA astronaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Friday, chased down the International Space Station and glided to a smooth automated docking, boosting the lab’s crew back to six.

Scott Kelly leaving NASA after record-setting space station flight

March 12, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly, just back from a record 340-day stay aboard the International Space Station, is leaving NASA at the end of the month, but he said Friday he will continue participating in ongoing medical research to study the effects of long-duration spaceflight.