Mission Reports – Page 108

SpaceX launches fifth Transporter rideshare mission

May 25, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday packed with 59 small satellites and research experiments, including an innovative commercial water-propelled orbital transfer vehicle from Momentus and a pair of NASA tech demos testing laser communications and proximity operations.

Live coverage: Boeing’s Starliner capsule returns to Earth

May 25, 2022 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule closed out a six-day unpiloted test flight Wednesday with undocking from the International Space Station, followed by return to Earth about four hours later. Undocking occurred at 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT), and the capsule parachuted to a successful landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 6:49 p.m. EDT (4:49 p.m. MDT; 2249 GMT).

Live coverage: SpaceX launches rideshare mission, lands another Falcon booster

May 25, 2022 Stephen Clark

Fifty-nine small satellites and hosted experiments launched Wednesday at 2:35 p.m. EDT (1835 GMT) from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The reusable Falcon booster returned to Florida’s Space Coast for landing about eight-and-a-half minutes later. The mission is the fifth for SpaceX’s Transporter smallsat rideshare program.

Starliner spacecraft cleared for undocking and re-entry

May 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

Astronauts on the International Space Station closed the hatch to Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft Tuesday, and ground teams used the lab’s robotic arm to inspect the capsule’s heat shield to clear the test vehicle for undocking Wednesday and return to Earth for a late afternoon landing in New Mexico.

Nanoracks experiment poised to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit

May 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

Nanoracks will fly an experiment with a small articulating robot arm on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission this week to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit, a test lasting just minutes that could advance in-space manufacturing technology to help convert used rocket stages into space habitats.

SpaceX swapping heat shield for next crew flight due to ‘manufacturing defect’

May 24, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s next crew mission to the International Space Station, set for launch in September, will fly with a different heat shield structure than originally planned after a composite substrate failed in acceptance testing due to a “manufacturing defect,” NASA said Tuesday.

China launches three communications test satellites

May 23, 2022 Stephen Clark

A two-stage Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched Friday and delivered three communications test satellites into an orbit about 550 miles above Earth.

Launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission delayed to late September

May 23, 2022 Stephen Clark

The launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission, which was set for Aug. 1 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, has been delayed to no earlier than Sept. 20 after ground teams discovered an issue during software testing on the spacecraft, officials said Monday.

Russian spy satellite launched by Soyuz rocket

May 23, 2022 Stephen Clark

A classified mapping satellite rode a Soyuz rocket into space Thursday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, the fifth mission of the year to deploy a Russian military payload in orbit.

Space station astronauts check out Starliner crew capsule

May 21, 2022 Stephen Clark

Astronauts on the International Space Station floated into Boeing’s Starliner capsule Saturday, becoming the first people to enter the spacecraft in orbit less than a day after it docked at the orbiting research complex for the first time. The station astronauts will spend several days performing tests and unpacking cargo inside the Starliner spacecraft before it departs and returns to Earth on Wednesday.