News – Page 257 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz launches with 22 satellites

September 29, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched Monday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with 22 satellites for operators in Russia, Europe, Canada, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.

First operational Crew Dragon launch slips to Halloween

September 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Monday that the launch of the first operational crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is set for the predawn hours of Halloween, eight days later than previously planned.

NASA selects SpaceX to launch mission studying interstellar space

September 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA has awarded SpaceX a $109 million contract to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, a NOAA space weather observatory, a robotic scout to map water on the moon, and two other ridealong payloads on a single Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in 2024.

Live coverage: Delta 4-Heavy countdown halted in final seconds

September 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance scrubbed the launch of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket Wednesday night less than 10 seconds before liftoff from Cape Canaveral, the second such abort suffered by this mission.. The launch of a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite is expected to be delayed at least several more days as engineers assess the cause of Wednesday’s last-minute abort.

After weather scrub, Starlink launch to wait for pair of national security missions

September 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

Continuing a dizzying series of rescheduled launches from Florida’s Space Coast, poor weather at the Kennedy Space Center forced SpaceX to keep a Falcon 9 rocket and 60 Starlink broadband satellites on the ground Monday. The Starlink launch is expected to be delayed until Thursday, after a pair of national security missions are set to blast off from Cape Canaveral Tuesday.

China launches environmental monitoring satellites

September 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

Without any public warning, a Chinese Long March 4B rocket lifted off Sunday with two “environmental monitoring satellites” that the country’s state media said will replace a pair of spacecraft launched in 2008 that collected data to assist in a series of disaster relief efforts over the last decade.

Live coverage: SpaceX scrubs Falcon 9 launch due to weather

September 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

After an 11-day delay, SpaceX planned to deploy 60 more Starlink broadband satellites with a Falcon 9 rocket launch scheduled for 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT) Monday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But SpaceX scrubbed the launch less than a minute before liftoff due to bad weather.

Delta 4-Heavy launch delayed by ground system issue

September 24, 2020 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s next launch attempt for its Delta 4-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite will be delayed to no earlier than early Tuesday.

Axiom finalizing agreements for private astronaut mission to space station

September 23, 2020 Stephen Clark

The chief executive of Axiom Space says agreements with NASA, SpaceX, and fare-paying passengers should be finalized in the coming weeks for the launch of the first all-private crew to the International Space Station in October 2021, and former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is set to command the mission.

China launches Haiyang oceanography satellite

September 22, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Chinese oceanography satellite designed to measure wave height and winds launched Monday aboard a Long March 4B rocket equipped with grid fins to help control the first stage’s descent back to Earth, an improvement aimed at keeping falling boosters away from Chinese villages.