Stephen Clark – Page 493 – Spaceflight Now

Rosetta begins listening for signs of life from comet lander

March 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is trying to contact the Philae landing probe for the first time since the robot fell silent after a bouncy landing on a comet in November.

Hubble observations reveal ocean on Ganymede

March 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have found the best evidence yet of a salty ocean of liquid water lurking beneath the surface of Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede, ripening the icy world’s allure as mission planners design probes for more detailed exploration.

Photos: Soyuz landing craft touches down in wintry Kazakhstan

March 12, 2015 Stephen Clark

A three-member space crew returned to Earth just after sunrise Thursday in Kazakhstan, descending through a sun-splashed sky under an orange and white parachute before dipping through fog for a rocket-cushioned touchdown on the snowy steppes of Central Asia.

Live coverage: Space station crew back on Earth

March 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Three crew members departed the International Space Station on Wednesday and descended back to Earth, touching down in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz TMA-14M capsule at 10:08 p.m. EDT (0208 GMT Thursday).

Powerful solid rocket motor fired in Utah

March 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled rocket booster fired for more than two minutes in Utah on Wednesday, spewing a torrent of glowing hot flame against a hillside in a key test for the Space Launch System, a behemoth rocket NASA is developing to send astronauts on long-distance voyages into space.

Space station crew ready to close out 167-day mission

March 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. Navy test pilot will buckle into custom-molded seats inside a Soyuz spaceship Wednesday, undock from the International Space Station and head for a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan to close out a 167-day space voyage.

Pluto-bound probe tweaks its trajectory

March 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft fine-tuned its path toward Pluto on Tuesday, firing its rocket thrusters for 93 seconds to aim for a fleeting flyby of the distant dwarf planet July 14.

Europa Clipper concept team aims for launch in 2022

March 10, 2015 Stephen Clark

With a commitment from the Obama administration finally in hand after more than a decade of studies and concept papers, NASA expects to give the green light this year for development of a robotic probe to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa that could launch as soon as 2022.

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid mission checks out

March 9, 2015 Stephen Clark

Three months into an interplanetary cruise expected to last three-and-a-half years, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe is in good health as it begins an ion-powered pursuit of an asteroid to return a piece of it to Earth.

Weeks from another launch, SpaceX keeping pace with manifest

March 8, 2015 Stephen Clark

The next launch in SpaceX’s busy manifest this year is scheduled for March 21, when a Falcon 9 rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral and deliver Turkmenistan’s first satellite into orbit.