Stephen Clark – Page 249 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on the pad at Vandenberg

June 12, 2019 Stephen Clark

These photos show SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with a previously-flown first stage booster, sitting on its launch pad Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California ahead of the scheduled liftoff of the Radarsat Constellation Mission.

Three Canadian radar satellites ready for launch from California

June 11, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX teams working at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California were finalizing preparations Tuesday ahead of the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday carrying a trio of Canadian-built radar observation satellites into orbit.

Newly-launched Russian telecom satellite relying on backup thrusters

June 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

A French-built communications satellite for Russia’s Gazprom Space Systems launched May 30 is maneuvering toward its final operating location in geostationary orbit using a set of backup thrusters after the spacecraft encountered a problem with its main engine.

First Falcon Heavy night launch slips to June 24

June 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

The first nighttime launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, and the first Falcon Heavy flight for the U.S. military, is set for no earlier than June 24 from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Air Force officials said Friday.

Final ‘single stick’ Delta 4-Medium rocket arrives at Florida launch pad

June 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

Ground crews finished the initial build-up of the last “single stick” medium-lift variant of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 rocket on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral last week in preparation for liftoff with a GPS navigation satellite July 25.

Japanese probe readies for another possible touch-and-go on asteroid

June 6, 2019 Stephen Clark

Approaching the one-year anniversary since its arrival at asteroid Ryugu, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has deployed a target marker near an artificial crater created by an explosive charge in April, a guide post that could help the probe steer toward another pinpoint touchdown to collect a second batch of samples for return to Earth.

Scientists call on InSight’s robotic arm to assist stalled heat probe on Mars

June 6, 2019 Stephen Clark

Later this month, ground teams will send commands for the InSight lander on Mars to use its robotic arm in a series of carefully-choreographed movements to help inspect, and potentially assist, one of the mission’s main geologic instruments that stalled as it hammered into the Red Planet’s crust earlier this year.

China’s first sea launch declared a success

June 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled Long March 11 rocket fired out of a container aboard a barge in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday with seven satellites heading into orbit on China’s first space launch from an ocean vessel.

NASA picks three companies to send commercial landers to the moon

June 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon.

Dragon capsule returns to Earth from space station with 2.1 tons of cargo

June 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

Closing out a 30-day mission, a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule departed the International Space Station on Monday for a fiery trip back to Earth, culminating in re-entry back into the atmosphere and a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles.