Mission Reports – Page 115

Virgin Galactic re-opens ticket sales, first commercial flight slips to late ’22

August 5, 2021 William Harwood

Virgin Galactic, buoyed by a successful July 11 suborbital test flight with founder Richard Branson on the company’s winged rocket plane, re-opened ticket sales Thursday for rides to space starting at $450,000 per seat.

Keeping up busy launch schedule, China launches military telecom satellite

August 5, 2021 Stephen Clark

China launched a communications satellite likely designed for use by the Chinese military Thursday, keeping up a busy schedule of space missions with the country’s fourth orbital launch attempt in barely a week.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule returns to hangar for valve troubleshooting

August 5, 2021 Stephen Clark

Ground teams at Cape Canaveral wheeled Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule and a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket back inside their assembly hangar Thursday for further troubleshooting of misbehaving valves inside the Starliner propulsion system. Without a quick fix, technicians will have to remove the spacecraft from the Atlas 5 rocket for more extensive work, potentially delaying the Starliner test flight by months.

Chinese rocket launches two small satellites to test communications tech

August 5, 2021 Stephen Clark

A Chinese rocket successfully launched Wednesday with a pair of small communications satellites reportedly linked to a secretive German company. The Chinese institute that built the satellites said they will test laser communications and electric thruster technologies.

Chinese commercial launcher fails during climb to orbit

August 3, 2021 Stephen Clark

The launch of a solid-fueled rocket developed by the Chinese commercial space firm iSpace failed Tuesday, the second launch failure in three orbital attempts by the startup company, Chinese state media said.

China launches Tianhui military mapping satellite

August 3, 2021 Stephen Clark

China successfully launched a Long March 2D rocket July 29 with a Tianhui military satellite on a mission to collect data for maps and land surveys.

Launch of Boeing crew capsule scrubbed due to propulsion system issue

August 3, 2021 Stephen Clark

Officials scrubbed the planned launch of a Boeing-built crew capsule Tuesday to examine a potential technical issue in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, delaying the start of a critical unpiloted test flight to prove the ship is ready to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Boeing crew capsule set for launch Tuesday on test flight to space station

August 2, 2021 William Harwood

An Atlas 5 rocket was hauled back to its seaside firing stand Monday for launch Tuesday on a flight to boost Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule into orbit for a second unpiloted test to prove the commercial ferry ship is ready to carry astronauts.

In battle with Russian lab module, space station ‘brought a knife to a gun fight’

August 2, 2021 William Harwood

Playing it safe, the seven-member crew of the International Space Station moved into the U.S. segment of the outpost Friday, closed hatches and window shutters and stood by while Russian flight controllers vented helium pressurization lines in the newly arrived Nauka lab module.

Live coverage: Launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft scrubbed

August 2, 2021 Stephen Clark

The planned liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was scrubbed Tuesday. The unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station is a prerequisite for launching astronauts on the next Starliner mission. The next launch attempt is expected at 12:57 p.m. EDT (1657 GMT) Wednesday.