Stephen Clark – Page 421 – Spaceflight Now

NASA must decide soon on Dawn mission’s next act

June 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA managers face a July 12 deadline to decide whether to send the Dawn spacecraft on an unplanned visit to a third object in the asteroid belt or keep the probe at dwarf planet Ceres until it runs out of fuel next year, officials said this week.

Chinese intelligence-gathering satellite launched by Long March 4B rocket

June 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Long March 4B rocket lifted off from a remote launch base in the Gobi Desert Wednesday and placed a secretive spacecraft in orbit 375 miles above Earth, likely adding a new electronic surveillance station to the Chinese government’s growing satellite fleet.

Photos: SLS test booster ignited in Utah

June 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Pushing out a brilliant plume of nearly 5,000-degree exhaust, a test booster for NASA’s Space Launch System fired for more than two minutes Tuesday to verify the upgraded space shuttle-era solid rocket motor is ready to help send astronauts into deep space.

Juno’s British-built engine readied for all-important firing at Jupiter

June 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers pressurized the Juno spacecraft’s propulsion system Tuesday to prep for a July 4 rocket firing by the probe’s UK-made rocket engine that will steer the spinning, solar-powered robot into orbit around Jupiter.

Space Launch System booster fired in final preflight qualification test

June 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled rocket motor mounted horizontally on a Utah hillside ignited and powered up to more than 3 million pounds of thrust Tuesday in a final full-up test-firing before a similar booster helps propel NASA’s huge Space Launch System away from Earth on a demonstration flight in 2018.

Oxygen finding strengthens case that Mars was once habitable

June 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

High concentrations of manganese oxides found in Martian rocks by NASA’s Curiosity rover indicate the red planet’s atmosphere once had much more oxygen than than previously thought, scientists said Monday.

Huge solid rocket booster to be test-fired Tuesday

June 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

A 154-foot-long solid rocket booster will be ignited for two minutes Tuesday at a remote test site in Utah, wrapping up a series of five ground firings to prove the motor’s readiness for flight on NASA’s Space Launch System.

New and improved space weather observatory goes live next month

June 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory, a $340 million mission that spent more than a decade grounded in a Maryland warehouse, will begin warning forecasters of dangerous solar storms next month, giving notice of events that could disrupt air travel, radio communications, electrical grids and satellite operations.

Prototype for new Chinese human-rated spacecraft lands in desert

June 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

A sub-scale landing craft for China’s next-generation crew capsule parachuted back to Earth on Sunday, one day after rocketing into orbit aboard the country’s new Long March 7 launcher.

Antares rocket’s return-to-flight slips to August

June 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

The first launch of Orbital ATK’s redesigned Antares rocket since an engine failure doomed a mission in 2014 will likely be delayed more than one month until August to complete analysis of data acquired during a first stage hotfire test, officials said.