Stephen Clark – Page 379 – Spaceflight Now

Watch a Falcon 9 rocket fire its engines Tuesday at pad 39A

April 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket completed a prelaunch hotfire test at launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday in a signifiant step before Sunday’s scheduled liftoff of a top secret U.S. government spy payload.

Operations resume at European-run launch base in French Guiana

April 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

Ground crews returned to work Monday at the Guiana Space Center, a European-run spaceport on the northeastern shore of South America, after protests and a general strike across French Guiana interrupted launch operations for five weeks.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket on track for Sunday launch

April 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX rolled out a Falcon 9 rocket to launch pad 39A early Tuesday for a prelaunch hotfire test before this weekend’s liftoff with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government spy satellite agency. The static fire test was completed at 3:02 p.m. (1902 GMT).

Cassini sails by Saturn’s moon Titan for last time

April 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sped by the moon Titan on Saturday, using the hazy world’s gravity to slingshot the probe on a trailblazing trajectory to explore the region between Saturn’s hydrogen-helium atmosphere and the planet’s famous rings for the first time.

China’s Tianzhou 1 cargo carrier docks with space lab in orbit

April 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

Less than two days after launching from southern China, the Tianzhou 1 supply ship glided to an automated linkup with the Chinese Tiangong 2 space laboratory around 240 miles above Earth on Saturday, ready for several months of technical demonstrations to prepare for assembly of a space station in the next few years.

Photos: Launch day for Fyodor Yurchikhin and Jack Fischer

April 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

These photos chronicle the activities of Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Jack Fischer on Thursday as they prepared for liftoff on a Soyuz rocket to begin an expedition of more than four months on the International Space Station.

First supply ship for Chinese space station lifts off on test flight

April 20, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Long March 7 rocket lifted off Thursday with Tianzhou 1, an unpiloted refueling freighter heading for China’s Tiangong 2 mini-space station to conduct several months of robotic demonstrations, practicing for the assembly and maintenance of a future permanently-staffed orbital research complex.

Live coverage: Yurchikhin, Fischer reach space station after fast-track rendezvous

April 20, 2017 Stephen Clark

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, on his fifth trip into space, and rookie NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, a Colorado native, blasted off aboard a Soyuz booster at 0713 GMT (3:13 a.m. EDT) Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, heading for the International Space Station for a four-and-a-half month expedition. The duo docked with the orbiting outpost at 1318 GMT (9:18 a.m. EDT).

With an eye on growing cost, NASA aims for 2025 launch of next ‘great observatory’

April 19, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA managers say the WFIRST mission, the next in the agency’s line of powerful observatories after the Hubble and James Webb telescopes, could cost around $3.2 billion after budgeting for a novel first-of-its-kind instrument to probe the make-up of planets around nearby stars and a bigger-than-expected launch vehicle.

ULA chief says Blue Origin in driver’s seat for Vulcan engine deal

April 18, 2017 Stephen Clark

A full-scale BE-4 engine developed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, is installed on a test stand in West Texas for a series of hotfire tests that United Launch Alliance will closely examine before settling on the reusable methane-fueled engine for its new-generation Vulcan rocket.