William Harwood – Page 54 – Spaceflight Now

Space station crew restored to six with Soyuz docking

July 23, 2015 William Harwood

A Russian Soyuz rocket thundered to life with a burst of flame and shot away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday carrying an international crew of three aloft on a six-hour flight to the International Space Station.

$100 million initiative to search for ET

July 20, 2015 William Harwood

Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner is pledging $100 million to fund the most sophisticated search for extraterrestrials ever attempted, a 10-year campaign using radio and optical telescopes, ultra-sensitive detectors and state-of-the-art software to study nearby stars and galaxies for tell-tale signals of alien civilizations.

Scientists thrilled with mountains on Pluto, chasms on Charon

July 15, 2015 William Harwood

Images from NASA’s New Horizons probe show Pluto is a surprisingly active world in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, with jagged 11,000-foot-high mountains of frozen water dusted with a veneer of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide ice amid smooth plains and jumbled terrain.

NASA probe finally on Pluto’s doorstep

July 12, 2015 William Harwood

Three billion miles and nine-and-a-half years from Earth, NASA’s New Horizons probe is racing toward a historic July 14 flyby of Pluto, providing the first close-up views of the most famous denizen of the Kuiper Belt, a vast hinterland where uncounted remnants of the solar system’s birth orbit in frozen solitude.

NASA names cadre of commercial crew astronauts

July 9, 2015 William Harwood

Four veteran astronauts have been selected to train for launch aboard new commercial crew capsules being built by Boeing and SpaceX that are intended to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station starting in 2017, NASA announced Thursday.

Progress resupply mission arrives at ISS

July 5, 2015 William Harwood

A Russian Progress cargo ship glided to a smooth docking with the International Space Station early Sunday, bringing more than 3 tons of supplies and equipment to the lab complex.

Russia launches cargo ship to station

July 3, 2015 William Harwood

Recovering from an April failure, Russia successfully launched a Progress cargo ship early Friday loaded with more than three tons of supplies and equipment needed to replenish stockpiles aboard the International Space Station.

New Horizons gets ‘all clear’ for Pluto flyby

July 2, 2015 William Harwood

After an exhaustive search for heretofore unseen rings, small moons or other space debris, senior managers have concluded that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, hurtling toward a July 14 flyby of Pluto at more than 30,000 mph, can safely stay on its current course without undue fears of a mission-ending impact.

New Horizons two weeks from Pluto flyby

June 30, 2015 William Harwood

NASA’s New Horizons probe, now just 10 million miles from Pluto and 14 days from a historic July 14 flyby, is operating in near flawless fashion, making increasingly detailed observations of the enigmatic dwarf planet and its large moon Charon, project engineers and scientists reported Tuesday.

Falcon 9 rocket destroyed in launch mishap

June 28, 2015 William Harwood

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 4,000 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station — including a critical docking adapter needed by future U.S. crew ships — broke apart in a shower of debris shortly after launch Sunday.