William Harwood – Page 54 – Spaceflight Now

Astronomers hopeful Hubble will make it to 30th anniversary

April 24, 2015 William Harwood

More than five years after a final shuttle servicing mission — and a quarter of a century since its launch in April 1990 — the Hubble Space Telescope is operating in near flawless fashion, and engineers are optimistic the observatory will remain on the forefront of astronomy at least through 2020.

Fixing Hubble’s blurry vision

April 23, 2015 William Harwood

The second report in our series marking the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch looks at the observatory’s flawed mirror and the Herculean effort to fix it.

Hubble Space Telescope marks 25 years in orbit

April 21, 2015 William Harwood

Suspension of disbelief has been called for time and again throughout Hubble’s history, starting with its launch 25 years ago April 24, the discovery of its famously flawed mirror, the MacGyver-like repairs by spacewalking astronauts and its subsequent rise from the ashes of disaster to the pinnacle of scientific success.

Blue Origin’s sub-orbital ‘New Shepard’ poised for test flights

April 8, 2015 William Harwood

Blue Origin, the historically secretive rocket company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, has completed development of a new hydrogen-fueled engine and plans to begin unmanned test flights of its reusable New Shepard sub-orbital spacecraft later this year, company officials said Tuesday.

Kelly settling in aboard space station

March 30, 2015 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly, settling in aboard the International Space Station for a marathon 342-day stay in orbit, said Monday he is looking forward to serving as a test subject for medical research on the long-duration effects of weightlessness, data he said would help pave the way for eventual flights to Mars.

Space station crewmen head off on 342-day mission

March 28, 2015 William Harwood

A workhorse Soyuz booster thundered to life and climbed into a dark Kazakh sky Friday, carrying NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko on a four-orbit voyage to the International Space Station to kick off a marathon 342-day mission, the longest flight ever attempted by an American.

Kelly, Kornienko braced for marathon mission

March 26, 2015 William Harwood

Shuttle veteran Scott Kelly first heard about NASA’s plans to send an astronaut to the International Space Station for nearly a full year shortly after he completed his third space flight in 2011, a 159-day stay aboard the orbital lab complex.

NASA opts to grab a boulder, not the whole asteroid

March 25, 2015 William Harwood

After an extended review, NASA has opted to forgo capturing a small asteroid as an interim step on the road to sending astronauts to Mars. Instead, the agency will focus on robotically plucking a sizable boulder from the surface of an asteroid and returning it to the vicinity of the moon for analysis by spacewalking astronauts in the mid 2020s.

Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan, returning international crew home

March 12, 2015 William Harwood

Three space station fliers — the outgoing NASA commander and two Russian cosmonauts — undocked and returned to Earth Wednesday, ending a 167-day stay in space with a communications blackout that left the crew out of contact with flight controllers during much of the trip home.

NASA probe closes in on dwarf planet Ceres

March 2, 2015 William Harwood

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is closing in on the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, beaming back increasingly sharp pictures revealing a heavily cratered world with unexpected spots of light that may be reflections off exposed ice or some other material.