Stephen Clark – Page 122 – Spaceflight Now

Astrobotic selects SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to launch robotic lunar lander

April 13, 2021 Stephen Clark

A commercial lunar lander built by Astrobotic will launch from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2023 to deliver a water-hunting NASA rover to the moon’s south pole, officials announced Tuesday.

Blue Origin to rehearse for human passengers on suborbital flight

April 13, 2021 Stephen Clark

Finally on the cusp of launching people to the edge of space, Blue Origin plans to use a suborbital test flight of its New Shepard booster and crew capsule Wednesday to rehearse boarding and recovery procedures for future missions with paying passengers.

Northrop Grumman servicer docks with active satellite in geosynchronous orbit

April 13, 2021 Stephen Clark

Northrop Grumman’s second robotic life extension spacecraft docked with an Intelsat satellite in geosynchronous orbit Monday, the first link-up between a commercial servicing mission and an operational communications craft.

China launches experimental Shiyan satellite

April 13, 2021 Stephen Clark

China launched the third in a series of experimental Shiyan 6 satellites April 8 aboard a Long March 4B rocket, beginning a mission to test new space technologies, including a new super-black coating to absorb stray light and improve the sensitivity of on-board optics.

Mars helicopter needs a software update before attempting first flight

April 12, 2021 Stephen Clark

NASA said Monday the Ingenuity helicopter needs a software update to resolve a problem that cut short the drone’s rotor startup sequence on Mars last week, postponing the craft’s first flight in the Red Planet’s atmosphere until later this month.

April 12 marks 60 years since Gagarin’s spaceflight, 40 years since shuttle debut

April 12, 2021 Stephen Clark

Sixty years ago Monday, a 27-year-old Russian test pilot named Yuri Gagarin strapped into a Vostok capsule in Central Asia and rode into orbit atop a launcher derived from a Soviet nuclear missile, becoming the first human to travel into the void of space. Twenty years later, in 1981, the era of reusable spacecraft dawned with the first launch of NASA’s space shuttle.

Live coverage: Soyuz launches with next space station crew

April 9, 2021 Stephen Clark

Veteran Russian commander Oleg Novitskiy, rookie flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 GMT). The crew members rode a Soyuz capsule in pursuit of the International Space Station, where docking occurred at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT).

SpaceX launches its 100th mission from Florida’s Space Coast

April 7, 2021 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Wednesday with another batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites, achieving success on SpaceX’s 100th mission to launch from Florida’s Space Coast and clearing the way for liftoff of a NASA crew mission to the International Space Station later this month.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

April 7, 2021 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:34 p.m. EDT (1634 GMT) Wednesday. The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage successfully landed on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX going for its 10th satellite launch of the year Wednesday

April 6, 2021 Stephen Clark

SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral are readying for the company’s 10th Falcon 9 rocket launch of the year Wednesday, another flight devoted to delivering satellites to orbit for the Starlink internet network.