William Harwood – Page 48 – Spaceflight Now

Record-setting space station crew lands after 340-day mission

March 2, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko ended a record-setting 340-day stay in orbit with a fiery plunge to Earth Tuesday, settling to a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown in Kazakhstan to close out a medical research voyage that may help pave the way for flights to Mars.

Kelly, Kornienko about to wrap up 340-day mission

February 29, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are making final preparations for return to Earth Tuesday evening, closing out a record 340-day stay aboard the International Space Station where they served as medical test subjects to learn more about the long-term effects of weightlessness, space radiation and isolation.

Gravitational waves detected, opening new era in astronomy

February 11, 2016 William Harwood

A century after Albert Einstein predicted their existence, gravitational waves have finally been detected, tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime that were generated when two massive black holes crashed together in a space-warping cataclysm.

Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell dies at 85

February 7, 2016 William Harwood

Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, died Thursday night after a short illness, one day before the 45th anniversary of his landing in the hilly Fra Mauro region of the moon with crewmate Alan Shepard. He was 85.

Russians carry out spacewalk

February 4, 2016 William Harwood

Two veteran cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Wednesday, swapped out materials science space exposure samples, installed handrails needed for future spacewalks and tested an applicator and thin-film coatings that could prove useful reconditioning aged or damaged hull panels.

Families, NASA honor fallen astronauts

January 28, 2016 William Harwood

On the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, crew families, friends and space workers gathered Thursday to remember the 17 men and women who lost their lives on the high frontier, 14 in two space shuttle disasters and three in an Apollo-era launch pad fire 49 years ago Wednesday.

Reporters remember Challenger coverage

January 27, 2016 William Harwood

Veteran CBS News correspondent Bruce Hall was not on the air when the shuttle Challenger blasted off 30 years ago Thursday. It was, after all, the 25th shuttle flight, the first of 16 planned for 1986, and news agencies were backing off expensive, remote coverage of what increasingly appeared to be a routine event.

Challenger remembered

January 26, 2016 William Harwood

Thirty years after the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated in the clear, cold sky high above Cape Canaveral, the commander’s widow no longer feels anger at NASA and the management missteps and schedule pressure that kept the orbiters flying despite a fatal flaw in their solid-fuel boosters.

Spacewalk terminated due to spacesuit water leak

January 15, 2016 William Harwood

Flight controllers ordered two astronauts to terminate a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Friday after one of them reported a small amount of water leaking into his space helmet.

Astronauts to repair station electrical circuit on Friday spacewalk

January 14, 2016 William Harwood

Two space station astronauts are gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Friday to replace a presumably shorted out solar array voltage regulator that knocked one of the lab’s eight power channels out of action late last year.