News – Page 301 – Spaceflight Now

After quiet autumn, SpaceX preps for busy December launch schedule

November 25, 2019 Stephen Clark

After a lull in launch activity this fall, SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral are preparing for up to four Falcon 9 missions in December to close out 2019 with a surge of launches.

China launches two more Beidou navigation satellites

November 23, 2019 Stephen Clark

Maintaining a rapid-fire launch cadence to close out the year, China added two more Beidou satellites to its independent positioning, navigation and timing fleet Saturday with a successful launch aboard a Long March 3B rocket.

Photos: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft rolls out of factory

November 22, 2019 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s first Starliner spacecraft designed to fly to the International Space Station rolled out of a converted space shuttle hangar before dawn Thursday.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 rocket launches with satellites for Egypt and Inmarsat

November 22, 2019 Stephen Clark

After a four-day delay due to a ground power supply anomaly and unfavorable weather, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off at 4:23 p.m. EST (2123 GMT) Tuesday to send into orbit a hush-hush communications satellite for the Egyptian military and a spacecraft to expand the capacity of Inmarsat’s mobile Internet service.

Spacewalkers continue repair of cosmic ray detector

November 22, 2019 William Harwood

In a complex bit of orbital surgery, two spacewalking astronauts cut into a $2 billion cosmic ray detector Friday, venting away life-sustaining carbon dioxide refrigerant and then snipping eight coolant lines the size of soda straws to prepare the high-tech “patient” for a coolant pump transplant.

Boeing’s first space-ready Starliner crew capsule meets its Atlas 5 launcher

November 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s first Starliner crew capsule to fly in space departed its factory Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a trip to a launch pad a few miles away, where teams raised the craft atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff next month on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s first Starship prototype ruptures during cryogenic test

November 20, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s first partially-assembled Starship vehicle, originally built for atmospheric test flights, ruptured in dramatic fashion Wednesday during a cryogenic loading test at the company’s launch facility in South Texas.

Chinese Mars rover completes landing trial ahead of 2020 launch

November 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

China has performed a hover and hazard avoidance test on a model the country’s first Mars rover, while engineers ready the real spacecraft for launch toward the red planet in mid-2020.

SpaceX offering Starship to NASA for lunar landing missions

November 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is eligible to propose using its next-generation Starship vehicle to carry NASA robotic science payloads to the lunar surface, the U.S. space agency announced Monday, on missions that could precede future Starship flights with people on-board. SpaceX is one of five companies NASA selected Monday to join a roster of commercial transportation providers to deliver scientific instruments and technology demonstration packages to the moon as soon as 2022.

China’s Kuaizhou launcher flies for second time in four days

November 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

Demonstrating a quick turnaround launch capability, China launched a light-class, solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket Sunday, four days after the same type of satellite booster fired into orbit from the same launch pad.