William Harwood – Page 52 – Spaceflight Now

Comet lander wakes up!

June 14, 2015 William Harwood

The European Philae comet lander, out of power and presumably lost after bouncing into heavily shadowed terrain last November, phoned home Saturday after finally getting enough sunlight on its solar panels to transmit data to the Rosetta orbiter for relay to Earth.

Jack King, ‘Voice of NASA,’ dies at 84

June 11, 2015 William Harwood

John W. “Jack” King, the calm, reassuring “Voice of NASA” who held the world riveted as he counted down the final seconds of the Apollo 11 launch to the moon, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 84.

U.S.-Russian-Italian crew returns to Earth

June 11, 2015 William Harwood

A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and an Italian wrapping up her first space flight boarded a Russian Soyuz ferry craft early Thursday, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth, landing safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an extended 200-day mission.

Three station fliers set for return to Earth

June 10, 2015 William Harwood

Three space station crew members packed up for a fiery return to Earth Thursday, wrapping up a nearly 200-day mission that was extended one month at the last minute because of a Russian rocket failure in April that threw a wrench into the lab’s crew rotation schedule.

Huge parachute shredded during Mars entry experiment

June 8, 2015 William Harwood

Flying more than twice the speed of sound 34 miles above Hawaii, a flying saucer-shaped test vehicle successfully inflated a doughnut-like airbrake, technology needed to slow heavy payloads down during descent to Mars, but a parachute ripped apart in the $230 million program’s second straight failure.

Hubble shows Pluto’s moons don’t know which end is up

June 3, 2015 William Harwood

As NASA’s New Horizons probe closes in on Pluto, the Hubble Space telescope has been scouting its retinue of five known moons, discovering that at least two are tumbling chaotically in the complex gravity of the dwarf planet and its large moon, Charon, researchers said Wednesday.

NASA marks 50th anniversary of first spacewalk

June 3, 2015 William Harwood

Two-and-a-half months after cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first human to walk in space, NASA astronaut Ed White floated out of his cramped Gemini 4 capsule 50 years ago Wednesday to become the first American spacewalker.

NASA selects instruments for Europa mission

May 26, 2015 William Harwood

Taking a major step toward an eventual robotic mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter believed to harbor ice-locked lakes and a vast sub-surface ocean, NASA has selected nine sophisticated instruments for a solar-powered spacecraft designed to find out whether the hidden realm could support life of some sort, agency officials said Tuesday.

SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth

May 21, 2015 William Harwood

A SpaceX cargo capsule loaded with 3,100 pounds of research samples, no-longer-needed equipment and trash returned to Earth Thursday after a month-long stay at the International Space Station, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Long Beach, Calif., after a fiery descent from orbit.

Brightman steps down from station flight

May 13, 2015 William Harwood

Soprano and would-be space tourist Sarah Brightman, who was in training for a flight to the International Space Station this fall aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft, will not be chasing her dream aloft after all.