Stephen Clark – Page 450 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz booster pointed skyward for Galileo launch

December 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

One day after a Soyuz crew transport rolled out to a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a similar Russian booster made a comparable journey Monday halfway around the world in tropical French Guiana for liftoff Thursday with two European Galileo navigation satellites.

Photos: Crew transport rolled out at Baikonur

December 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

Tugged along a historic route leading to the launch pad where Yuri Gagarin took off 1961 to become the first person in space, a Soyuz rocket rolled out of its assembly hangar in Kazakhstan and stood up on its launch mount Sunday.

Thales, Arianespace win repeat business with O3b

December 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

Armed with $460 million in fresh financing to grow its broadband communications capacity, O3b Networks has selected Thales Alenia Space to build eight new satellites and Arianespace to launch at least four of them aboard a Soyuz rocket in 2018.

Asteroid probe confirmed on good trajectory after Earth flyby

December 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Japanese space probe picked up just the right amount of speed when it flew by Earth earlier this month, using the planet’s gravity to slingshot toward an asteroid scientists think is a primordial leftover from the ancient solar system, mission managers said Monday.

Photos: Zenit rocket soars on perhaps its last launch

December 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Zenit rocket fired away from a Kazakh launch pad Friday with a Russian weather satellite, and the launch marked what could be the Ukrainian-made booster’s final flight.

Curiosity rover reaches Martian sand dunes

December 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Curiosity rover is studying sand dunes towering up to two stories tall, returning new images showing a rippled landscape that represents a case of still-active geology on the red planet.

Russian data relay satellite launched by Proton rocket

December 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

A secretive Russian military communications satellite arrived in geostationary orbit Sunday after a successful liftoff aboard a Proton rocket, the Russian defense ministry said.

Falcon 9’s near-term manifest coming into focus

December 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s launch of a cluster of communications satellites for Orbcomm, set for as soon as next weekend, holds the headlines, but the company’s Falcon 9 rocket could fly at least four times in the next two months, assuming smooth launch campaigns and no glitches.

Russian weather satellite lifts off aboard Zenit rocket

December 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

A weather satellite to help civilian and military forecasters track storm systems over Russia’s vast territory launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday aboard a Ukrainian-built Zenit rocket, perhaps on its final flight as Russian-Ukrainian relations sour and demand wanes for the 1980s-era launcher.

Live coverage: International crew lands in Kazakhstan

December 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, flanked by Japanese flight engineer Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, boarded a Soyuz landing craft Friday and made a parachute-assisted touchdown in Kazakhstan at 1312 GMT (8:12 a.m. EST) to close out more than 141 days on the International Space Station.