Mission Reports – Page 382

NASA science instrument ready to study critical space weather boundary zone

January 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A $66 million NASA-funded science sensor package bolted on to a commercial communications satellite is ready for a ride toward a 22,000-mile-high orbital perch Thursday on a European Ariane 5 rocket, commencing a two-year mission surveying a rarely-studied region of Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 lifts off from French Guiana

January 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A European Ariane 5 rocket delivered two commercial communications satellites to orbit Thursday after Arianespace’s ground team lost telemetry from the launcher during its climb into orbit, raising concerns that the mission might have failed. The SES 14 and Al Yah 3 satellites are confirmed in orbit and healthy, but the parameters of their orbits are unknown. Both were heading toward 22,000-mile-high geostationary perches over the equator.

Hold-down firing nudges Falcon Heavy rocket closer to first liftoff

January 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket fired up 27 main engines Wednesday on launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending a crackling rumble across the swampy spaceport and moving the heavy-lifter a step closer to its oft-delayed maiden flight as soon as next week.

Falcon Heavy hot fire as seen from Kennedy Space Center Press Site

January 24, 2018 Spaceflight Now

Video of the Falcon Heavy engine test firing at launch pad 39A as seen from the Kennedy Space Center Press Site.

Watch the Falcon Heavy roar to life

January 24, 2018 Spaceflight Now

SpaceX ignited the engines of its Falcon Heavy at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Jan. 24 as it prepares for the maiden flight of the three-core rocket.

Build-up of Ariane 5 rocket complete for launch Thursday

January 23, 2018 Stephen Clark

The first Ariane 5 rocket scheduled for launch in 2018 has been topped off with two communications satellites for SES and Yahsat, moving the European booster closer to liftoff Thursday from a tropical launch pad in French Guiana with payloads to serve commercial and scientific missions.

Spacewalkers complete repairs to station robotic arm

January 23, 2018 William Harwood

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station early Tuesday and replaced one of the grapple fixtures on the end of the lab’s robot arm, the first of two excursions over the next week to complete a complex overhaul that began with a pair of spacewalks last October.

Photos: Atlas 5 takes off with SBIRS GEO Flight 4

January 22, 2018 Stephen Clark

Revisit Friday night’s blastoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral with SBIRS GEO Flight 4, the fourth in an upgraded line of U.S. Air Force missile detection and warning satellites.

Testbed for Canadian data relay network successfully launched from China

January 22, 2018 Stephen Clark

A nanosatellite built in Scotland for Kepler Communications, a Toronto company planning a 140-satellite global data relay network, rode to orbit Friday with five Chinese satellites launched aboard a solid-fueled Long March 11 booster from the Gobi Desert.

End to government shutdown should limit impact on space operations

January 22, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA and the U.S. Air Force are expected to return to normal operations Tuesday after lawmakers passed a budget bill Monday evening, ending a government funding lapse that threatened to cut off live television coverage of an International Space Station spacewalk and interrupt SpaceX launch operations in Florida and California.