Stephen Clark – Page 397 – Spaceflight Now

Internal debris may be causing problem with Mars rover’s drill

December 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Engineers suspect a piece of foreign object debris may be intermittently stalling a motor needed to place the Curiosity Mars rover’s drill bit onto rocks, and the robot’s ground team is assessing the source of the potential contamination.

Chinese Earth observation satellites launched into lower-than-planned orbit

December 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

Two commercial Earth-imaging satellites launched by a Chinese Long March 2D booster Wednesday are flying in lower-than-planned orbits after an apparent rocket mishap, according to tracking data published by the U.S. military.

Orbital ATK has no plans to phase out seldom-used Pegasus rocket

December 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

The build-up of Orbital ATK’s next air-launched Pegasus XL rocket will start in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and while its flight in mid-2017 is the last Pegasus launcher on the manifest with a confirmed payload, company officials are confident the unique vehicle has a future beyond next year.

Proton rocket’s next flight moved back to next year

December 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

The first launch of a Russian Proton rocket since June has been delayed until at least January to conduct additional checks on the three-stage booster and its Breeze M upper stage, Russian space officials said.

Piers Sellers, shuttle astronaut and renowned climate researcher, dies at 61

December 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

Former astronaut Piers Sellers, a British-born climate scientist who flew on three space shuttle missions to help construct the International Space Station, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.

Photos: Arianespace caps 2016 campaign with successful Ariane 5 flight

December 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

The Ariane 5 rocket’s 90th launch Wednesday carried two communications satellites to orbit to join the fleets of Embratel Star One and SKY Perfect JSAT, regional space-based telecom providers in Brazil and Japan.

Hunt for water at Ceres goes underground

December 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has continued its survey of the dwarf planet Ceres this year, discovering rock-bound ice hidden just beneath the airless world’s rugged surface and a handful of icy outcrops inside craters in the northern hemisphere, raising hopes that Ceres could have once held a buried habitable ocean of liquid water.

China sends carbon-monitoring satellite into orbit

December 22, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Chinese satellite designed to track greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere rode into orbit Wednesday aboard a Long March 2D rocket, joining an international fleet of orbiting carbon dioxide monitors aimed at combating climate change.

Brazilian and Japanese communications satellites launched by Ariane 5 rocket

December 21, 2016 Stephen Clark

Closing out a banner year of launches, an Ariane 5 rocket thundered into space Wednesday from French Guiana with two commercial communications satellites manufactured in California to expand television and broadband access in Latin America and broadcast television programming in Japan.

Engineers examine unexpected readings from JWST shake test

December 20, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA says engineers are diagnosing the source of “anomalous readings” during a recent vibration test of the sensitive optics and sensors at the heart of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.