Stephen Clark – Page 475 – Spaceflight Now

Orbital ATK picks up where it left off with Orion abort system

July 7, 2015 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK has cinched $188 million in contracts to complete development of the Orion crew capsule’s needle-shaped launch abort system, resuming work stalled in the wake up a major shakeup of NASA’s human spaceflight program by the Obama administration in 2010.

Musk: Falcon 9 rocket failure a “huge blow” to SpaceX

July 7, 2015 Stephen Clark

Speaking publicly for the first time since a Falcon 9 rocket failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that engineers are still piecing together what happened during the June 28 accident in hopes of announcing more details within a few days.

New Horizons back in business after weekend scare

July 6, 2015 Stephen Clark

Fully recovered from a computer hiccup that disrupted science observations this weekend, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will resume imaging of Pluto on Tuesday, a week before the plutonium-powered probe zooms less than 7,800 miles from the unexplored dwarf planet at the frontier of the solar system.

Next Ariane 5 launch reset for July 15

July 6, 2015 Stephen Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket launch with a Brazilian television broadcasting satellite and a European weather observatory has been rescheduled for July 15 after technicians double-checked one of the spacecraft for oil contamination.

Photos: Russian supply ship flies to space station

July 6, 2015 Stephen Clark

Russia’s Progress M-28M supply ship blasted off from the steppes of Kazakhstan on Friday, launching on a two-day trip to the International Space Station with critical supplies, fuel and fresh food displayed by station astronaut Scott Kelly.

Technical problem pauses Pluto probe’s science operations

July 5, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s New Horizons space probe, 10 days from a one-shot encounter with enigmatic Pluto, stopped collecting science data Saturday after a technical problem interrupted the spacecraft’s tightly-choreographed flight plan.

Air Force stays the course with SpaceX rocket certification

July 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

Sunday’s Falcon 9 rocket failure may have blemished SpaceX’s success record, but the mishap will not keep the entrepreneurial space company from competing for U.S. military launch contracts with rival United Launch Alliance, according to an Air Force general.

Two faces of Pluto revealed in color imagery

July 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

The first well-resolved color photos of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, speeding toward a close-up encounter July 14, show a world blotched with dark features spanning two very different sides of the dwarf planet.

Data, not debris, takes spotlight in Falcon 9 failure investigation

July 1, 2015 Stephen Clark

Although recovery teams in the Atlantic Ocean have retrieved wreckage from Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch failure, the best clues to the cause of the crash lie in raw data transmitted from the rocket as it disintegrated, SpaceX officials said Wednesday.

Soyuz rocket rolled out for critical ISS cargo launch

July 1, 2015 Stephen Clark

An eight-ton Russian Progress supply ship packed with nearly three tons of food, water and fuel for the International Space Station is ready for liftoff Friday on a vital mission to resume cargo deliveries to the outpost after back-to-back logistics flights fell short.