Stephen Clark – Page 258 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Falcon Heavy raised vertical at pad 39A

April 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy, outfitted to produce more thrust than the heavy-lifter’s debut flight last year, was raised vertical at launch pad 39A in Florida on Wednesday ahead of a launch attempt with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite.

Live coverage: Falcon Heavy launches, three boosters land safely

April 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off Thursday with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. The world’s most powerful operational launcher lifted off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT), and its three first stage boosters landed less than 10 minutes later — two back at Cape Canaveral and one on a drone ship at sea.

Live coverage: SpaceX scrubs Falcon Heavy launch, set to try again Thursday

April 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX called off a launch attempt Wednesday for the company’s second Falcon Heavy rocket after high winds aloft posed a problem during the countdown. Another launch opportunity is available Thursday with a window opening at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT) from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After the Falcon Heavy takes off with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite, the launcher’s two side boosters will return to a landing at Cape Canaveral, while the center core will aim for touchdown on a drone ship at sea.

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe releases ‘bomb’ at asteroid

April 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft dropped an explosive charge on asteroid Ryugu on Thursday night in an audacious attempt to carve a crater on the object, exposing pristine underground rocks to be retrieved by the probe for return to Earth.

Israel’s Beresheet lander brakes into lunar orbit

April 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

Six weeks after launching from Cape Canaveral, an Israeli-built probe funded through private donations arrived in orbit around the moon Thursday, setting the the stage for the mission’s final descent to the lunar surface April 11.

Soyuz launch deploys last of O3b’s first-generation broadband satellites

April 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with four more satellites Thursday to join SES’s O3b broadband network will help satisfy growing bandwidth demands in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific islands until the deployment of a new generation of upgraded spacecraft in 2021, SES officials said.

Live coverage: Four more O3b broadband launch aboard Soyuz rocket

April 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

Four more satellites for SES Networks’ O3b broadband fleet launched Thursday aboard a Soyuz rocket. Liftoff of the Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Center in South America occurred at 1703 GMT (1:03 p.m. EDT).

Progress cargo freighter docks with space station after fast-track rendezvous

April 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

A Russian Progress resupply and refueling freighter launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of a Soyuz booster. The cargo craft completed the fastest rendezvous in the history of the International Space Station program with a successful docking less than three-and-a-half hours later.

Israel’s Beresheet lander heads for make-or-break lunar capture maneuver

April 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

An Israeli spacecraft has one shot Thursday to swing into orbit around the moon with a six-minute engine firing, a critical maneuver that will set up for the privately-funded probe’s historic landing attempt April 11.

InSight scientists not sure stalled Mars heat probe can be recovered

April 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

Ground teams analyzing data from a heat probe that got stuck soon after it started digging into the Martian crust under NASA’s robotic InSight lander still hope they can free the mole from an obstruction that halted its progress more than a month ago, but the mission’s chief scientist says the chances of completing the heat probe experiment — one of InSight’s two main science instruments — may not look promising.