Stephen Clark – Page 382 – Spaceflight Now

Pioneering Earth observation satellite retired by NASA

April 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has decommissioned a long-lived satellite launched in 2000 that demonstrated remote sensing and surveying instruments and techniques common in today’s orbiting Earth observatories.

SpaceX flies rocket for second time in historic test of cost-cutting technology

March 31, 2017 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sporting a fresh cleaning and several refurbishments took off Thursday from a seaside launch pad in Florida to send an SES communications satellite into space, then landed on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean to repeat a feat the same booster achieved nearly one year ago.

Photos: Press site views of SpaceX’s rocket relaunch

March 31, 2017 Stephen Clark

These photos of Thursday evening’s successful relaunch of a Falcon 9 rocket booster, which returned to Earth after a maiden mission last year, were taken at the Kennedy Space Center press site about 3.1 miles from launch pad 39A.

Photos: Previously-flown Falcon 9 booster ready for second launch

March 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket is standing on launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for liftoff Thursday to carry the SES 10 communications satellite into orbit on the first mission SpaceX has attempted to re-fly one of its used boosters.

Kimbrough, Whitson gear up for spacewalk

March 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

For the second time in less than a week, astronauts will leave their quarters inside the International Space Station on Thursday to outfit a relocated docking adapter to eventually receive Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew capsules.

Falcon 9 launch timeline with SES 10

March 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday evening, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the SES 10 communications satellite into orbit 32 minutes later.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches previously-flown rocket

March 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, powered by a previously-flown booster, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:27 p.m. EDT (2227 GMT) Thursday. The mission, which lofted the SES 10 communications satellite, marks the first time SpaceX has reused the first stage of one of its Falcon 9 launchers.

SpaceX ready to put rocket reuse vision to the test

March 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 booster that flew into space last year is set to launch again Thursday from Florida’s Space Coast with an SES communications satellite on a historic mission that could make major strides in validating SpaceX’s audacious goal of recovering and reusing launchers, an achievement the company says will revolutionize the rocket business. Liftoff is set for 6:27 p.m. EDT (2227 GMT).

NASA assigns astronauts to future space station missions

March 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has announced that veteran astronauts Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold will launch on nearly six-month expeditions aboard the International Space Station starting in September and in March 2018, filling seats aboard Russian Soyuz spaceships recently acquired in a commercial arrangement with Boeing.

InSight lander’s troubled seismometer passes major test

March 28, 2017 Stephen Clark

A balky interplanetary seismic instrument that ran into technical problems in 2015, forcing a two-year delay in the launch of NASA’s InSight lander to Mars, cleared a major test last week after engineers redesigned part of the sensor package, boosting confidence that the mission will be ready to blast off in May 2018.